TTIP Negotiations and Public Procurement: Internal Federalist Tensions and External Risks of Marginalisation

Government procurement is perhaps one of the most underexplored areas in the recent academic literature on transatlantic economic relations, yet it was also one of the most protected economic sectors addressed in the now derailed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Even though the European Union (EU) and the United States have undertaken extensive reciprocal procurement commitments under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), as well as in their respective preferential trade agreements (PTAs), the liberalisation and harmonisation of the transatlantic procurement market could not be more ambiguous or controversial. This article aims to deepen our understanding of crucial aspects of the contemporary EU–United States procurement relationship. To this end, the article explores the TTIP negotiations as well as similar PTAs and underlines the potential implications in terms of the fragmentation of the international discipline of procurement regulation.