Government procurement required 40 years and substantial efforts to become part of the international trade regime, even though it comprises a significant part of the global economy. The international system requires governments to balance protectionist forces favoring local suppliers against the pressures of liberalization, which expand procurement markets and lower prices.
The International Procurement System takes the reader on a journey through the negotiations and compromises that were required to subject government procurement to international disciplines. It begins with the development of plurilateral agreements in the World Trade Organization. It continues through bilateral agreements involving the United States, the European Union, and Japan. It looks at what the participants gained by incorporating procurement into the global trading system and what they gave up.
The United States is central to this story. It was an early and strong champion of opening procurement to foreign participation. Yet it has been challenged by pressures to comply with a myriad of domestic laws mandating favoritism for US products. Beginning with the ‘America First’ policies of the Trump administration and accelerating under President Biden, the US has been pivoting away from its support of liberalization. As US leadership waned, the European Union and other trading parties moved into pivotal roles.
After detailing the 40-year development of government procurement’s role in global trade; Jean Heilman Grier addresses the challenges and tensions of the international system. China remains outside the system despite its vast procurement market. The US protectionist turn is prompting similar responses by other countries. The EU is adopting trade defense measures to protect its own interests. The International Procurement System concludes that the primary procurement agreement may be destined to remain a club of mostly developed countries and unable to restrain the expansion of unilateral measures.
David Alan Grier is the Digital Technology and Communications Principal at Djaghe LLC. He has over 35 years of experience working in private industry, universities, and professional societies.
In publications, he was the editor-in-chief of two magazines published by the Computer Society of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He served as Director of its magazine group, Publisher for the Computer Society, and a member of the IEEE Press Committee. He has been a columnist or contributing editor for many periodicals, including Computer Magazine, Consumer Electronics Magazine, IEEE Annals, and The Communications of the Chinese Computing Federation (published in Mandarin). He has authored five books, including When Computers Were Human (Princeton University Press, 2005), and produced numerous podcasts, such as “The Known World,” “The Errant Hashtag,” and “The CrowdPod.” Full list of his publications.
In Academe, he was an associate professor at the George Washington University, where he served as Assistant Dean of Engineering, Associate Dean of International Affairs, and Director of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Washington and an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Middlebury College.
In Industry, he began his career as a software engineer for Burroughs Computer Corporation. He has worked as a consultant to technology firms, helped to organize the Crowdsortium Trade Association, and served as Director of Global Policy for the IEEE. He was also the President of the Computer Society.
In the Performing Arts, he served on the Board of Trustees of the Shakespeare Theatre (Washington, DC) and has consulted with other performing arts organizations on issues of technology and management. He has also authored and produced audio dramas, including A Bustle, A Corset, & The London Necropolis Express and Add Subtract Unite Divide.
Jean Heilman Grier is the International Trade Principal at Djaghe LLC. She has over 35 years of experience in international trade as a trade negotiator, lawyer, adviser, and consultant.
At Djaghe LLC, she advises businesses, organizations, and governments on a wide variety of international procurement and trade issues. Her expertise includes global procurement, trade policy, U.S. trade laws, international trade agreements, and trade negotiations. She is the author of The International Procurement System: Liberalization & Protectionism (Dalston Press, 2022) and numerous other publications on international procurement and other trade topics. Since 2013, she has written the blog, Perspectives on Trade.
At the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, she served as Senior Procurement Negotiator. In that role, she led the development of trade policy related to public procurement and negotiations for the United States on the World Trade Organization’s Government Procurement Agreement and procurement chapters in numerous free trade agreements across the globe, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
At the U.S. Department of Commerce, she served as Senior Counsel for Trade Agreements. In that position, she engaged in a broad range of international trade issues, including the negotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement and numerous bilateral agreements with Japan. She also participated in anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, as well as investigations conducted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
Prior to entering the U.S. government, she was an Assistant Attorney General with the State of Minnesota. In that Office, she served as Chief of the Public Utilities Division, representing the State in electric, gas, and telecommunications rate cases, Chief of the Consumer Protection Division, litigating consumer fraud cases, and as the first attorney for the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board.
She received law degrees from the University of Minnesota (J.D.) and the University of Washington (LL.M in Asian Law) and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from South Dakota State University. As a Fulbright Scholar at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, she conducted research in Japanese administrative law. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.