Registration Systems and Qualification Procedures

1. A Party, including its procuring entities, may maintain a supplier registration system under which interested suppliers are required to register and provide certain information.

2. Each Party shall ensure that:

(a) its procuring entities make efforts to minimise differences in their qualification procedures; and
(b) if its procuring entities maintain registration systems, the entities make efforts to minimise differences in their registration systems.

3. A Party, including its procuring entities, shall not adopt or apply a registration system or qualification procedure with the purpose or the effect of creating unnecessary obstacles to the participation of suppliers of the other Party in its procurement.

Selective Tendering

 4. If a procuring entity intends to use selective tendering, the entity shall:

(a) include in the notice of intended procurement at least the information specified in Article 19.6.3(a), (b), (f), (g), (j), (k) and (l) and invite suppliers to submit a request for participation; and
(b) provide, by the commencement of the time-period for tendering, at least the information in Article 19.6.3(c), (d), (e), (h) and (i) to the qualified suppliers that it notifies as specified in Article 19.10.3(b).

5. A procuring entity shall allow all qualified suppliers to participate in a particular procurement, unless the procuring entity states in the notice of intended procurement any limitation on the number of suppliers that will be permitted to tender and the criteria for selecting the limited number of suppliers.

6. If the tender documentation is not made publicly available from the date of publication of the notice referred to in paragraph 4, a procuring entity shall ensure that those documents are made available at the same time to all the qualified suppliers selected in accordance with paragraph 5. 

Multi-Use Lists

7. A procuring entity may maintain a multi-use list of suppliers, provided that a notice inviting interested suppliers to apply for inclusion on the list is:

(a) published annually; and
(b) if published by electronic means, made available continuously, in the appropriate medium listed in Annex 19-8.

8. The notice provided for in paragraph 7 shall include:

(a) a description of the goods or services, or categories thereof, for which the list may be used;
(b) the conditions for participation to be satisfied by suppliers for inclusion on the list and the methods that the procuring entity will use to verify that a supplier satisfies the conditions;
(c) the name and address of the procuring entity and other information necessary to contact the entity and obtain all relevant documents relating to the list; 
(d) the period of validity of the list and the means for its renewal or termination, or if the period of validity is not provided, an indication of the method by which notice will be given of the termination of use of the list; and
(e) an indication that the list may be used for procurement covered by this Chapter.

9. Notwithstanding paragraph 7, if a multi-use list will be valid for three years or less, a procuring entity may publish the notice referred to in paragraph 7 only once, at the beginning of the period of validity of the list, provided that the notice:

(a) states the period of validity and that further notices will not be published; and
(b) is published by electronic means and is made available continuously during the period of its validity.

10. A procuring entity shall allow suppliers to apply at any time for inclusion on a multiuse list and shall include on the list all qualified suppliers within a reasonably short time.

11. If a supplier that is not included on a multi-use list submits a request for participation in a procurement based on a multi-use list and all required documents, within the time-period provided for in Article 19.10.2, a procuring entity shall examine the request. The procuring entity shall not exclude the supplier from consideration in respect of the procurement on the grounds that the entity has insufficient time to examine the request, unless, in exceptional cases, due to the complexity of the procurement, the entity is not able to complete the examination of the request within the time-period allowed for the submission of tenders.

Procuring Entities of Annex 19-2 and Annex 19-3

12. A procuring entity covered under Annexes 19-2 or 19-3 may use a notice inviting suppliers to apply for inclusion on a multi-use list as a notice of intended procurement, provided that:

(a) the notice is published in accordance with paragraph 7 and includes the information required under paragraph 8, as much of the information required under Article 19.6.3 as is available and a statement that it constitutes a notice of intended procurement or that only the suppliers on the multi-use list will receive further notices of procurement covered by the multi-use list; and
(b) the entity promptly provides to suppliers that have expressed an interest in a given procurement to the entity, sufficient information to permit them to assess their interest in the procurement, including all remaining information required in Article 19.6.3, to the extent such information is available.

13. A procuring entity covered under Annexes 19-2 or 19-3 may allow a supplier that has applied for inclusion on a multi-use list in accordance with paragraph 10 to tender in a given procurement, if there is sufficient time for the procuring entity to examine whether the supplier satisfies the conditions for participation. 

Information on Procuring Entity Decisions

14. A procuring entity shall promptly inform any supplier that submits a request for participation in a procurement or application for inclusion on a multi-use list of the procuring entity’s decision with respect to the request or application.

15. If a procuring entity rejects a supplier’s request for participation in a procurement or application for inclusion on a multi-use list, ceases to recognise a supplier as qualified, or removes a supplier from a multi-use list, the entity shall promptly inform the supplier and, on request of the supplier, promptly provide the supplier with a written explanation of the reasons for its decision.