On 02 May 2013 Liechtenstein became the first World Trade Organisation (WTO) member to ratify the Amendment to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) that was adopted on 30 March 2012. The GPA, a plurilateral agreement within the WTO system, provides a framework for the progressive liberalisation of markets for the procurement of goods, services and construction services (public works). It is built around the principles of non-discrimination, transparency and procedural fairness, and embodies a set of best practices in public procurement based on the experience of the participating governments. The existing version of the agreement was developed in parallel with the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. The revised text of the agreement and expansion of related market access commitments attached to the protocol were negotiated by the parties over a period of more than ten years. The negotiation reached a political conclusion in 2011, prior to the formal adoption of the results of the negotiations in March 2012. Currently, the GPA covers 42 WTO members. A further ten WTO members have applied for accession to the agreement (Albania, China, Georgia, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, New Zealand, Oman, Panama and Ukraine). Seven other members have commitments to join the GPA as part of their WTO accession protocols: Croatia, the former Macedonia, Mongolia, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan. In addition, the GPA is used extensively as a template for government procurement chapters in bilateral or regional trade agreements, including with non-parties to the agreement. The coming into force of the Protocol of Amendment is expected to encourage additional interest in accession to the agreement by other WTO members, in part based on the new flexibilities and transitional measures that it incorporates.