CETA (Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement)

CETA is the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. It is an international free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union and its member states, and the Government of Canada identifies it by this name in Contracting Policy Notice 2017-4.

Chapter 19 of CETA addresses government procurement. It is a trade agreement that governs market access and procurement procedures. It is not a technical certification or a defence standard, so a supplier does not "get CETA certified." Instead, CETA decides whether a given Canadian purchase must follow set trade rules, such as how it is advertised and how suppliers can challenge it.

What Chapter 19 contains

The procurement obligations in CETA fall into two groups. The first is procedural rules for covered procurements. The second is a set of market-access schedules, laid out in eight Canadian annexes, that identify covered entities, goods, services and construction services, along with exclusions.

CETA builds on commitments Canada made under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement. It also expands access to certain sub-national and public-utility procurement opportunities, as described in the Government of Canada's 2017 assessment of the agreement.

When CETA applies to a Canadian purchase

CETA does not apply automatically to every government purchase in Canada. Canada's approach to government procurement in international trade states that only covered entities, procurements above the applicable thresholds, and covered goods, services or construction services are subject to the trade-agreement provisions.

Four factors decide coverage:

• the procuring entity, because coverage follows the agreement's schedules rather than an entity's general public-sector status;
• the type of procurement: goods, services or construction;
• the value of the procurement against the applicable threshold; and
• any exclusions or exceptions that apply.

CETA covers specified central, sub-central and municipal entities, as well as other entities listed in its annexes. For federal buyers, Contracting Policy Notice 2017-4 states that CETA obligations begin when the entity has decided on its procurement requirement. They do not wait for the solicitation to be posted.

Supply arrangements work the same way. Under the CanadaBuys guidance on trade-agreement applicability, each individual contract issued under a supply arrangement requires its own determination of whether a trade agreement applies.

CETA articles you will see in tender notices

Two CETA provisions turn up regularly in Canadian notices.

• Article 19.6 concerns notices for covered procurements. CanadaBuys cites it in its guidance on tender notices and trade agreements. Covered competitive procurements generally must be advertised through the designated electronic tendering service.
• Article 19.12(b)(iii) is cited in Advance Contract Award Notices (ACANs) where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons. A published example is this CanadaBuys ACAN.

When a notice names a CETA article, it tells you which trade-agreement rule the buyer is relying on. An ACAN that cites Article 19.12(b)(iii) is a signal that the buyer intends to award without competition. A supplier that believes it can meet the stated requirement can respond within the notice period.

What CETA means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

A supplier does not need to hold any CETA credential. What matters is knowing whether a procurement is covered and acting on the notice.

• Monitor CanadaBuys for tender notices and ACANs.
• Check which trade agreements the notice lists, and whether CETA is among them.
• Follow the solicitation's stated submission, technical and contractual requirements exactly. Trade-agreement coverage does not relax them.
• Use the applicable bid-challenge or review procedures if you believe trade-agreement obligations were not followed. Canada's trade-policy guidance states that covered agreements give suppliers access to domestic review procedures.

For bid teams, a CETA citation in a notice is useful market intelligence. It shows how the buyer classified the procurement and which rules it is applying.