DoD Amends Federal Acquisition Regs to Implement KORUS
The Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration are issuing an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). Korea is already party to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), but this trade agreement implements a lower procurement threshold.
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The KORUS now covers acquisition of supplies and services between $100,000 and the current WTO GPA threshold of $202,000, lowering the threshold for (i) Waiver of the applicability of the Buy American statute for some foreign supplies and construction materials from Korea; and (ii) Applicability of specified procurement procedures designed to ensure fairness in the acquisition of supplies and services. These obligations include, among others, that an agency shall not impose the condition that, in order for an offeror to be allowed to submit an offer or be awarded a contract, the offeror has been previously awarded one or more contracts by an agency of the U.S. Government or that the offeror has prior work experience in the U.S.
This interim rule is effective March 15, 2012, the date KORUS goes into effect.
(See ITT's Online Archives 12030210 for summary of the U.S. Trade Representative waiving discriminatory government procurement requirements for KORUS.)