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News Release from: The Forum of Private Business | Subject: Access to Government contracts
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 26 October 2006
FPB steps up pressure on procurement
Forum of Private Business calls on UK government and EU to stick up for the country's smaller firms and their access to Government contracts.
The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has heaped further pressure on the Government and the UK's EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson to stick up for the country's smaller firms and their access to Government contracts The FPB, a business pressure group which represents 25,000 small and medium-sized businesses in the UK, wants the EU to have an opt-out from a World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement which forbids the favouring of SMEs in the procurement process
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 7 Aug 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Speaking in Strasbourg, the FPB's European spokesman, Martin Smith, said: "If we are to do anything about the derisory proportion of Government contracts that go to SMEs, especially in the UK, we need an opt-out from the agreement".
"The UK's SME sector desperately needs our Government to support France's proposals, the FPB favours a quota of Government contracts in the UK being set aside for smaller firms".
Canada, Japan, South Korea and the United States already have an opt-out from the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), which has been in force in the WTO since 1981".
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"Any smaller-business-friendly measures in the realm of procurement would require a similar opt-out".
"As a trade matter, the EU, and specifically trade Commissioner Mandelson, would have to negotiate this on behalf of its member states".
"The deadline for any proposal to revise the agreement falls in November, otherwise the agreement stays in its current form for 10 years".
"Tory MEP Syed Kamall, of the European Parliament's Committee on Trade, has sent a written question to Mr Mandelson".
"Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the backbone of our economy, yet the Government shuts them out of a potentially lucrative market", Mr Kamall said.
"Even if this Labour Government is not serious about opening this marketplace to small businesses, it is still important we get an exemption from WTO rules so that future Governments have the freedom to take action." he added.
The leader of the Conservative Party, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP, speaking at FPB's Small Firms' Summit last week, pledged to set aside 25% of Government contracts for SMEs if elected, but Mr Smith has warned that such a pledge may be futile unless the opt-out is in place: "The Tories will be powerless to keep that promise until at least 2016 unless Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson act now".
"The clock is ticking for the Government to show that it really does care about the success of our smaller businesses." he added.
The UK's record in this area is particularly poor and the Government's habit of late payment is off-putting for smaller firms.
The requirement to produce three years' worth of accounts also prevents young, innovative companies from taking part, as does the general lack of information and transparency.
The FPB believes that Government departments are ambivalent to the problem.
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