Press Release: EU lifts longstanding public procurement sanctions against US

The EU announced that it would lift longstanding sanctions on 1 March 2006 which had been imposed on the United States in response to US sanctions on EU Member States. The US, which had alleged that previous EU government procurement rules discriminated against US operators by allowing preferential pricing allowances in some sectors for EU operators, ended its measures on the same day, and the EU responded by doing the same. The EU telecommunications market, which had been the focus of US concerns, was now fully liberalised.