International Procurement
Problems in Identifying Foreign Discrimination Against U.S. Companies Gao ID: NSIAD-90-127 April 5, 1990Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed the implementation of Title VII of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, focusing on the: (1) availability and adequacy of information to the President about foreign discriminatory procurement; and (2) U.S. government's efforts to gather the information.
GAO found that: (1) the President's first report identifying countries that discriminated against U.S. companies in their government procurement practices was due April 30, 1990; (2) the U.S. Trade Representative's investigations were seeking detailed information on the procurement procedures and practices of many countries which sold little to the U.S. government, in some cases less than $100,000; (3) due to unchanged monitoring codes, the 1990 Title VII investigation will be based on some information that is over 2 years old; (4) the private sector had not come forward with many complaints; and (5) due to a lack of expertise and resources, the government's ability to obtain information about foreign government procurement has been limited.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
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