Free Trade Agreement--Colombia (FAR Case 2012-012)

Summary:

FAC 2005-59 includes an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement. This Trade Promotion Agreement is a free trade agreement that provides for mutually non-discriminatory treatment of eligible products and services from Colombia.

Supplementary Information:

I. Background

DoD, GSA, and NASA are issuing an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), to amend FAR part 25 and the corresponding provisions and clauses in FAR part 52 to implement the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act (Pub. L. 112-42) (19 U.S.C. 3805 note).

This Trade Promotion Agreement is designated in the FAR as the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The FTA provides for--

•  Waiver of the applicability of the Buy American statute (41 U.S.C. chapter 83) for some foreign supplies and construction materials from Colombia; and

•  Applicability of specified procurement procedures designed to ensure fairness in the acquisition of supplies and services (see FAR 25.408).

II. Discussion and Analysis of the Public Comments

This interim rule adds Colombia to the definition of "Free Trade Agreement country" in multiple locations in the FAR.

The Colombia FTA covers acquisition of supplies and services equal to or exceeding $77,494. The threshold for the Colombia FTA is $7,777,000 for construction. The excluded services for the Colombia FTA are the same as for the Bahrain FTA, Dominican Republic-Central American FTA, Chile FTA, NAFTA, Oman FTA, and Peru FTA.

Because the Colombia FTA construction threshold of $7,777,000 is the same as the WTO GPA threshold, no new clause alternates are required for the Buy American Act--Construction Materials under Trade Agreements provision and clause (FAR 52.225-11 and 52.225-12) or the Recovery Act FAR clauses at 52.225-23 and 52.225-24.

Dates:

Effective Date: The Effective Date for this interim rule is 15 May 2012.

Comment Date: Interested parties should submit written comments to the Regulatory Secretariat on or before 9 July 2012 to be considered in the formulation of a final rule.

Click here to read the entire Federal Register notice for this rule.

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