Canada's International Trade Obligations: Barrier or opportunity for sustainable public procurement?

The paper argues that international trade agreements do not inherently impede sustainable public procurement, though they prohibit 'buying local' and discourage favoring specific social groups. It identifies the primary barriers as a lack of agency capacity, financial constraints, and political will, rather than the regulatory framework itself.

• International trade agreements, including the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement and CETA, do not prevent sustainable public procurement, although they prohibit 'buying local' and discourage favoring specific groups such as women-owned or Indigenous-owned enterprises.
• The perceived barriers to sustainability in procurement are not the regulatory frameworks, which increasingly reference green procurement, but are instead rooted in procurement agency capacity, financial limits, lack of political will, and the failure to view procurement as a strategic government function.
• While CETA has increased the number of Canadian entities bound by international trade rules, many procurement processes remain outside the scope of these agreements.

APA

Casier,, L. (2019). Canada's International Trade Obligations: Barrier or opportunity for sustainable public procurement? International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/canadas-international-trade-obligations-barrier-or-opportunity-sustainable

Chicago

Casier,, Liesbeth. Canada's International Trade Obligations: Barrier or opportunity for sustainable public procurement? International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2019. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/canadas-international-trade-obligations-barrier-or-opportunity-sustainable.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Casier, |first1=Liesbeth |title=Canada's International Trade Obligations: Barrier or opportunity for sustainable public procurement? |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=26 March 2019 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/canadas-international-trade-obligations-barrier-or-opportunity-sustainable |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{casier2019canadas, author = {Casier,, Liesbeth}, title = {{Canada's International Trade Obligations: Barrier or opportunity for sustainable public procurement?}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2019}, month = mar, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/canadas-international-trade-obligations-barrier-or-opportunity-sustainable}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }