Mediation for Public Construction Contracts under the GPA in Taiwan

The purpose of this paper is to examine mediation for public construction contracts under the Government Procurement Act (GPA) in Taiwan. The World Trade Organization Committee on Government Procurement, on December 9, 2008, adopted a decision that invites Taiwan to accede to the plurilateral agreement. Government procurement accounts for in the range of 15-20% of gross domestic product, on average, in developed countries. At the same time, the number of disputant cases over public construction contracts reached 70% of contract disputes under GPA between January and March in 2009 according to the official statistical information of Taiwan. In recent years, there are specific measures of the dispute settlement mechanism, especially in mediation under GPA, to be enacted and implemented. As the growing attention given to the Agreement of Government Procurement in Taiwan, the dispute settlement mechanism regarding government procurement has become an important issue. Therefore, this paper probes into the developments of mediation for public construction contracts under Taiwan's government procurement. It is hoped that the discussion of the study will help the reforms of the dispute settlement mechanism of government procurement in Taiwan and also be beneficial for both Taiwan and international contractors.