Which countries' companies can bid on which governments' tenders…

The short answer

You can bid for another government’s contract on equal terms only when:

that government and your country are bound by a procurement agreement;
the buyer is listed in it; and
the contract is above its threshold and not excluded.

Outside that, you might still be welcome, since many countries are open by law or by habit, but you have no right to be. A growing number of countries now exclude non-covered bidders outright.

The WTO Government Procurement Agreement

The GPA is the main multilateral agreement. It has 22 parties covering 49 WTO members:

	Parties
Europe	The EU and its 27 member states, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia (joined October 2023) and Armenia
Americas	The United States and Canada
Asia-Pacific	Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia (joined 2019), New Zealand, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong (China)
Middle East	Israel
Other	Aruba (for the Netherlands)

Observers follow the agreement without being bound by it. There are 39, including China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Vietnam, Thailand, Argentina and, since June 2026, Uruguay.

Negotiating to join: Albania, China, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Timor-Leste, the first least-developed country to apply.
Brazil: withdrew its market-access offer in 2023, but its application still stands.

How coverage works. Each party lists, in its schedule:

the central, sub-central and other entities (such as utilities and state companies) it opens;
the goods, services and construction covered;
general notes with exclusions, some aimed at particular parties.

Equal treatment applies only to those buyers, above the thresholds. The schedules are on e-GPA.

Standard thresholds (in SDR, the IMF’s unit of account):

Buyer	Goods and services	Construction
Central government	130,000	5,000,000
Sub-central government	200,000	5,000,000
Other entities (utilities, state companies)	400,000	5,000,000

Some parties set higher figures. Canada and the US use 355,000 SDR for sub-central buyers, and Japan and Korea use 15 million SDR for some construction. In local currency for 2026–27, the US thresholds are $174,000 for central goods and services, $474,000 sub-central, $535,000 for other entities and $6,683,000 for construction. The EU’s are €140,000 central, €216,000 sub-central, €432,000 utilities and €5,404,000 works.

Trade agreements with procurement chapters

Bilateral and regional agreements add pairs the GPA doesn’t cover, or go further:

Agreement	Members	Status
CPTPP	Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, UK	In force (UK since December 2024). Costa Rica’s accession concluded May 2026.
CETA	EU, Canada	Applied since 2017, including provinces and municipalities
EU–Japan, EU–UK, EU–Chile, EU–New Zealand, EU–Singapore, EU–Vietnam	EU and each partner	In force
EU–Mercosur interim agreement	EU, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay	Applied provisionally from 1 May 2026; EU firms can bid at federal and state level
EU–Mexico modernised agreement	EU, Mexico	Signed May 2026, not in force; the 2000 agreement still applies
EU–India agreement	EU, India	Concluded January 2026, not in force
UK–India CETA	UK, India	In force 15 July 2026, India’s first procurement commitment. India covers central entities above 450,000 SDR (5 million SDR for construction). UK suppliers with at least 20% UK content count as local suppliers under India’s preference rules.
UK–Australia, UK–New Zealand	UK and each partner	In force since 2023
US free trade agreements	US with Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Mexico (USMCA, US–Mexico only), Morocco, Oman, Panama, Peru, Singapore, and the CAFTA-DR countries	In force; US thresholds from about $100,000 to $174,000
India–UAE CEPA	India, UAE	In force since May 2022. National treatment for 41 UAE federal entities above 134,000 SDR. It excludes ICV-programme procurement, and disputes can’t go to the agreement’s dispute settlement.
New Zealand–UAE CEPA	New Zealand, UAE	In force August 2025, opening UAE central-government procurement
Canada’s agreements	Canada with Korea, the UK, Ukraine, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Panama, Peru	In force. CUSMA’s procurement chapter doesn’t cover Canada, so Canada relies on the GPA with the US.
Mercosur procurement protocol	Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay	Brazil has applied it since 2024

Note: the Australia–India ECTA and the India–Singapore CECA have no procurement chapter. The India–Japan CEPA promises only treatment no worse than other non-members get.

If your country isn’t covered

What happens depends on the buyer’s country. The rules have tightened sharply since 2024:

United States. For contracts at or above the Trade Agreements Act thresholds ($174,000 for goods and services, $6,683,000 for construction), agencies may buy only US-made products or products from designated countries: GPA parties, US free-trade partners, about 47 least-developed countries and Caribbean Basin countries. That excludes China, India, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Türkiye, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, among others. Below the threshold, the Buy American Act requires 65% domestic content, rising to 75% from 2029.

European Union. In the Kolin judgment (22 October 2024), the EU Court ruled that companies from countries without an agreement can’t demand equal treatment. Each buyer decides whether to admit them, at any value, and can adjust their scores. Member states can’t legislate generally on this, and the EU’s International Procurement Instrument has excluded Chinese bidders from medical-device tenders over €5 million since June 2025.

Poland goes further. Since 9 September 2025, bids from non-covered countries are rejected by default unless the tender allows them, and those bidders can’t appeal.

Sweden proposes to stop protecting non-covered suppliers from 2027.

Canada. Since 14 July 2025, suppliers from countries without procurement commitments to Canada are excluded from non-defence federal buys over CAD 10,000. Since December 2025, Buy Canadian preferences also favour Canadian suppliers on large strategic contracts. The US, the EU, Japan and others have questioned these measures at the WTO.

United Kingdom. Equal treatment is owed only to treaty state suppliers. Buyers may disregard bids from others.

Australia. Above its thresholds, Australia doesn’t discriminate by origin. Below them ($125,000, or $7.5 million for construction), it invites only Australian and New Zealand businesses since November 2025.

Korea guarantees non-discrimination only to GPA parties.

Many others are open in practice. Brazil’s law, for example, requires equal treatment of foreign bidders, and Japan and Singapore don’t discriminate by nationality. But that openness is a choice of national law, not a right you can enforce.

How non-covered companies still win

A local subsidiary with substance. Origin rules increasingly look at where a company is actually established and operates. A letter-box company risks being treated as foreign anyway.
A consortium led by a covered firm. Check the tender: some buyers, such as Poland’s, can also exclude consortia that include non-covered members.
Subcontracting to a covered main contractor, within content rules such as the IPI’s 50% cap and Buy American content thresholds.
Development-bank tenders. The World Bank, AIIB and EBRD finance contracts open to companies from all countries. ADB, AfDB, IDB and IsDB limit eligibility to their member countries.

What changed in 2025–2026

June 2025: the EU’s first International Procurement Instrument measure (Chinese medical devices).
July 2025: Canada’s interim reciprocal procurement policy.
August and October 2025: the New Zealand–UAE and Australia–UAE CEPAs took effect.
September 2025: Poland began rejecting non-covered bidders by default.
November 2025: Australia limited below-threshold invitations to Australian and New Zealand businesses.
December 2025: Canada’s Buy Canadian measures; later questioned at the WTO.
1 January 2026: new GPA thresholds in local currencies.
January 2026: the EU–India agreement concluded (not yet in force).
May 2026: the EU–Mercosur interim agreement applied provisionally from 1 May; the EU–Mexico agreement was signed (not in force); Costa Rica’s CPTPP accession concluded.
June 2026: Uruguay became a GPA observer.
15 July 2026: the UK–India CETA took effect.
Coming: Sweden’s proposal to exclude non-covered suppliers from 2027; the EU’s proposed Public Procurement Act, which includes a possible European preference.

Questions

What is the WTO Government Procurement Agreement?

A treaty in which its parties open listed government buyers to each other’s suppliers, on equal terms, above set values. It has 22 parties covering 49 WTO members: the EU and its 27 member states, the US, the UK, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Israel, Singapore, New Zealand, Ukraine, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Armenia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Aruba. China, Brazil, India and others are observers, not parties.

Can a company from a non-GPA country bid on US federal contracts?

Mostly not above the trade-agreement thresholds. For contracts of $174,000 or more in goods and services ($6,683,000 for construction) in 2026–27, US agencies may only buy US-made products or products from ‘designated countries’: GPA parties, US free-trade partners, least-developed countries and Caribbean Basin countries. That excludes China, India, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Türkiye, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, among others. Below the threshold, the Buy American Act requires 65% domestic content.

Can companies from outside the EU bid for EU tenders?

Companies from GPA parties and from countries with an EU trade agreement covering procurement must be admitted for the contracts those agreements cover. Since the EU Court’s Kolin ruling of October 2024, companies from other countries have no right to equal treatment: each buyer decides whether to admit them, at any value. Poland has gone further and rejects them by default unless the tender allows them.

Which trade agreements include government procurement?

Among the most important: CPTPP (12 Pacific members including the UK), CETA (EU–Canada), the EU–Japan, EU–UK, EU–Chile, EU–New Zealand, EU–Singapore and EU–Vietnam agreements, the EU–Mercosur interim agreement (applied provisionally from 1 May 2026), the UK–India CETA (in force 15 July 2026), US free trade agreements such as KORUS, USMCA (US–Mexico only), the India–UAE and New Zealand–UAE CEPAs, and Canada’s agreements with Korea, the UK, Ukraine and several Latin American countries.

My country isn’t covered. How can my company still win foreign government contracts?

Four common routes: set up a local subsidiary with real operations (a shell company is risky, because origin rules look at where you’re actually established); bid in a consortium led by a firm from a covered country; subcontract to a covered main contractor, watching content rules; and target development-bank-financed tenders, such as the World Bank’s, AIIB’s and EBRD’s, which are open to companies from all countries.

Do thresholds matter for market access?

Yes. Agreements only cover contracts above their thresholds, typically 130,000 SDR (about $174,000) for central government goods and services, more for sub-central buyers and utilities, and 5 million SDR for construction. Below those values, countries can and often do favour local suppliers: Australia, for example, invites only Australian and New Zealand businesses below its thresholds since November 2025.

Sources

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.

Which companies can bid on which governments' tenders.