UNCITRAL tackles procurement issues

There are few thornier areas in international commerce than that of government procurement, where national security concerns, xenophobia, popular economics, and powerful interest groups all play a major role.  The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law is working on potential reforms to its Model Procurement Law.  In a forthcoming paper in The Procurement Lawyer, UNCITRAL Model Law: Reforming Electronic Procurement, Reverse Auctions, and Framework Contracts, three advisers on the project (Don Wallace and Christopher Yukins of George Washington, and Jason Matechak of Reed Smith LLP) provide a rundown.  Here’s the abstract:

A Working Group of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is working on potential reforms to UNCITRAL’s Model Procurement Law and its Guide to Enactment. This article, written by several advisers to the U.S. delegation to the UNCITRAL Working Group, reviews the Working Group’s progress on several important fronts. The Working Group has reached initial consensus on a number of difficult procurement issues, including electronic commerce, reverse auctions and framework contracts, and significant progress has been made in a number or other areas, including the procurement of services, the strengthening of procurement remedies (known in the United States as bid protests), and the utilization of socioeconomic policy tools.