GD/250
Norway - Procurement of Toll Collection Equipment for the City of Trondheim
Other titles
Norway Trondheim Toll Ring (Source: GATT Analytical Index); Trondheim Toll Ring Procurement (Source: GATT Analytical Index)
Products at Issue
| Products at issue |
Electronic toll collection system
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| Type of product |
Non-agricultural
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| Product sub-type |
Machinery; electrical and electronic equipment
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Related disputes
| GATT | |
| WTO |
Key legal aspects
| Legal basis |
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| Claims raised |
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| Defences raised |
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Adjudicators
| Type | Panel |
| Chairperson | Peter J. Williams (United Kingdom) |
| Other members | Alexander Karrer (Switzerland), Roy Kilvert (Unknown) |
| Type | Panel |
| Legal basis at issue |
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| Claims at issue |
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| Defences at issue |
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| No of Pages (total / legal reasoning) | 24 (and 5 annex) |
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Timeline
| Request for consultations | |
| Request for establishment | |
| Establishment | |
| Composition | |
| Report | |
| Adoption of report |
Outcome
| Outcome of the proceedings |
Report adopted
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| Additional Info | GPR.DS2/R (28/04/1992) Norway – Procurement of Toll Collection Equipment for the City of Trondheim – Report of the Panel: The Panel first considered the question of the coverage of the procurement by the Agreement on Government Procurement. The Panel noted that it was not in dispute that the procurement had been single tendered and that therefore it would have to meet the requirements of Article V:16 if it were to be in conformity with the Agreement. Since Article V:16(e) was an exceptions provision, its scope had to be interpreted narrowly and it would be up to Norway, as the Party invoking the provision, to demonstrate the conformity of its actions with the provision. The question before the Panel was whether, under the contract, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration had procured prototypes which had been developed at its request in the course of, and for, a particular contract for research or original development. The Panel considered that, in order to be covered by sub-paragraph (e) of Article V:16, Norway would have had to have demonstrated, among other things, that (i) the Norwegian Public Roads Administration had had as its principal purpose in concluding the contract the procurement of the results of research and/or original development from Micro Design, and (ii) that the principal purpose of the equipment procured from Micro Design under the contract had been to test and provide a means of further developing the knowledge generated through that research and/or original development. In the view of the Panel, Norway had demonstrated neither of these points. The Panel therefore found that the single tendering of the contract by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration did not meet the requirements of Article V:16(e) of the Agreement. Given that the Panel had found that Norway had unjustifiably single tendered the procurement with a Norwegian company, the Panel found that Norway had failed to comply with the obligation in Article II:1 to provide the suppliers of other Parties treatment no less favourable than that accorded to domestic suppliers. Since the act of single tendering had precluded competition and since the Panel had already found that the contract should not have been single tendered, the Panel did not make a finding on Article IV. The Panel did not consider it appropriate to recommend that Norway negotiate a mutually satisfactory solution with the United States that took into account the lost opportunities of United States companies in the procurement or that, in the event that such a negotiation did not yield a mutually satisfactory result, the Committee be prepared to authorise the United States to withdraw benefits under the Agreement from Norway with respect to opportunities to bid of equal value to the Trondheim contract. The Panel therefore recommended that the Committee request Norway to take the measures necessary to ensure that the entities listed in the Norwegian Annex to the Agreement conduct government procurement in accordance with the above findings. |