Trade Agreements Act | The Contracting Education Academy

October 21, 2020 By cs

Proposed rule portends increased contractor Buy American Act obligations

On September 14, 2020, the FAR Council published a proposed rule, Case 2019-016 “Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials,” 85 FR 56558, which proposes certain increased and new thresholds for contractors subject to the Buy American Act (BAA).

The proposed changes implement Executive Order 13881 (July 15, 2019). There is a November 13, 2020, deadline for interested parties to submit written comments for consideration in the final rule.

Notwithstanding the potential for the proposed changes to be incorporated into a final rule, the changes will only impact contractors if the basic BAA rules are not overridden by the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) or Balance of Payments Program. The BAA only applies to purchases over the micropurchase threshold and under the threshold for TAA applicability, which is currently $182,000 for supply contracts and $7,008,000 for construction contracts. That said, even when a contract exceeds the TAA threshold, the BAA still applies to certain categories of acquisitions, including, but not limited to, sole source awards, small business set-asides, and certain national security or national defense purchases.

Keep reading this article at: https://governmentcontractsnavigator.com/2020/09/30/proposed-rule-portends-increased-contractor-baa-obligations/

October 17, 2018 By AMK

Pragmatism wins the day in GAO Buy American protest

Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a bid protest decision regarding the application of Buy American Act (BAA) requirements to a solicitation for construction. In this decision, GAO rejected the agency’s determination that an offeror’s bid was nonresponsive because the offeror failed to provide certain required information for the evaluation of a potential BAA exception.

A summary of the decision and our takeaways are below.

Passed in 1933 during the Great Depression, the BAA was designed to support United States labor and manufacturing by establishing certain federal government procurement requirements related to the purchase of domestic supplies and the incorporation of domestic materials into construction projects in the United States.

With respect to construction projects, FAR subpart 25.2 requires contractors to incorporate “domestic construction materials,” unless the contracting officer determines that an exception applies or the requirements are otherwise waived by the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), as implemented in FAR subpart 25.4.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2018/10/pragmatism-wins-day-gao-buy-american-protest/

May 14, 2018 By AMK

When it comes to acquisition, have it both ways: Compliance and convenience

Federal procurement laws exist for a reason. Whether it’s protecting national interests or helping American businesses succeed, the lawmakers and public servants who crafted these statutes had the greater public good in mind.

The same holds true for the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act (JWOD or commonly known today as the AbilityOne Program), signed into law 80 years ago. The program provides the federal government with products and services it needs, while giving people who are blind or have significant disabilities the opportunity to become taxpaying citizens and reduce their reliance on government assistance.

The JWOD Act is just one of the procurement laws and regulations federal buyers must consider before stocking their storerooms. Buyers want to do the right thing, but the burden of compliance seems heavy.

Enter the goal of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Section 846 e-commerce portal initiative being led by the General Services Administration (GSA) in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB): Make purchasing more convenient and compliance easier.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/commentary/2018/05/when-it-comes-to-acquisition-have-it-both-ways-compliance-and-convenience/

July 3, 2017 By AMK

House begins work on another round of DoD acquisition overhauls

For the third year in a row, the annual Defense authorization bill the House Armed Services Committee will begin considering is chock full of provisions that are meant to reform the acquisition system – including one that would represent the biggest change in decades in the way the government buys commercial goods.

Among the more than five dozen acquisition provisions in the bill is committee chairman Mac Thornberry’s proposal to require DoD to buy its commercial-off-the-shelf products from private sector “online marketplaces” like Amazon. The chairman first floated the idea in a discussion draft a month ago, and the version the panel will consider today is mostly unchanged with two major exceptions: it would apply to the entire federal government, not just DoD, and it would require the government to do its buying through at least two online platforms rather than “one or more.”

But the revised version seems to have done little to satisfy industry’s many concerns with the proposal, including that it does not make clear how agencies would comply with numerous other acquisition laws and regulations – including protections for small business – and that it would bypass the Competition in Contracting Act.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense-news/2017/06/house-begins-work-today-on-another-round-of-dod-acquisition-overhauls/

February 20, 2014 By AMK

China makes another bid to join WTO procurement agreement

China offered a revised bid to enter the World Trade Organization’s Government Procurement Agreement, which guarantees members mutual private-sector access to government procurements worth more than a low threshold.

This comes in as China’s fifth bid since 2007.

In December, 2013, at the annual session of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, China agreed to submit a revised offer in 2014 that would be in line with those of other GPA members, a December 2013 Office of U.S. Trade Representative fact sheet says.

The WTO GPA allows private sector access to government procurements worth more than $202,000 between countries who have joined the agreement. Certain services are barred from WTO GPA coverage, including services in support of the overseas military, dredging, federally funded research centers and ship repairs; the WTO also allows procurements to be excluded from agreement coverage on national security grounds.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/china-makes-another-bid-join-wto-procurement-agreement/2014-02-13

On September 14, 2020, the FAR Council published a proposed rule, Case 2019-016 “Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials,” 85 FR 56558, which proposes certain increased and new thresholds for contractors subject to the Buy American Act (BAA).

Federal procurement laws exist for a reason. Whether it’s protecting national interests or helping American businesses succeed, the lawmakers and public servants who crafted these statutes had the greater public good in mind.

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