Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the proposed TTIP agreement provides equality of competition for US and EU companies in the tendering of public service contracts.
Anna Soubry
The Procurement Chapter in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will not require the Government to outsource public services, and it will only apply to specified services sectors. The Procurement Chapter is still being negotiated – the EU and US made their first exchange of offers in February. Our aim is to enhance the opportunities for UK companies seeking to operate in the US. An assessment for the European Commission suggests that around 10% of the EU’s potential economic gains could come from liberalisation of procurement in the US. Therefore, the Procurement Chapter is expected to contain an obligation not to discriminate in favour of domestic firms when procuring services.
