The Trade Agreements Act, or TAA, applies to GSA contracts which are vehicles for selling products on a federal, state, or local level. GSA contracts include pre-set terms, conditions and pricing that make the sales process more simple. The products that are discussed as part of these GSA contracts must comply with the Trade Agreements Act (TAA). All health products and other related products that fall under the GSA contracts apply.
When a health product is being considered for the Trade Agreements Act, that product needs to have been completed on a manufacture level in an approved country, otherwise compliance does not occur. There is an approved list of locations that fall under this category and these products can then become part of an approved GSA contract. The list is pretty extensive, making this process a bit simpler than it may originally sound.
In addition to health products, other related services apply to the Trade Agreement Act. What is taken into consideration is where the legal address of the company is located rather than where the services themselves are provided. As long as that address is located in an approved country or location, TAA compliance is secured.
The government attempts to provide strict enforcement when it comes to these GSA and TAA related products. While there may occasionally be a product or company that is located in a non-approved TAA country, a large percentage of the products and services are compliant. There are currently more than 20,000 contracts and products that are part of this act. Steps are being taken to improve upon the process of checking and enforcing compliance. Often times, when companies or products are overlooked by the GSA, reports are made by other compliant businesses that are unhappy with their competitor’s non-compliance. An investigation then takes place and if necessary, the products or services are removed. Confidentiality is ensured when a report is filed in order to protect the integrity of the other party that filed the report.
While the Trade Agreement Act, or TAA, relates to a wide variety of different products and services, health-related products fit onto this list as well. Achieving compliance on a GSA and TAA level allows health product companies to take their business to the next level and secure some pretty large clientele. Gaining leverage with the Department of Health and some other big organizations can bring in far more revenue than occurs when just sticking with smaller, privately owned companies.
The Trade Agreements Act of 1979 was passed by Congress to serve several purposes. Firstly, it aims to foster international trade and expand the United States’ ability to engage in trade deals. Secondly, it hopes to further define and better enforce trading rules and regulations. Finally, the act also approved agreements made in a previous act in 1974.
In reference to surgical trays, the part of the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) that is most applicable is the goal of opening international trade deals because it defined various products as compliant if they are manufactured in the United States or in one of the other countries listed in the agreement as a “designated country”. Designated countries include places the United States has an existing free trade agreement with, countries that participate in the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement, “least developed countries”, as well as Caribbean Basin countries.
Due to the requirement put forward by the TAA that all goods and services procured by the federal government (or any government-funded agencies including most hospitals) must be manufactured in either the United States or a designated country, it can be difficult sometimes to insure compliance if there is uncertainty about where products like surgical trays originated or were actually constructed.
On occasion, the TAA will run a compliance check and investigate the origin of an acquired product or service. In these instances, a company or hospital in fact, may have to provide evidence that their surgical trays have been manufactured in the United States or a designated country, or they will be subject to punishment under the rules and regulations of the FAA.
In the specific case of surgical trays, the easiest and most obvious step toward compliance would be simply to make sure that the trays you have purchased originate from one of the countries specified in the list of designated countries. However, surgical trays present a unique issue that may also come up under the FAA: sometimes the customized items contained on surgical trays are new or unavailable from one of the designated countries. CPT Medical, Inc. provides a solution to this issue: “You need to know that the vendors of the tools you’re purchasing have updated the part numbers for their products in the DAPA Management System.” This insures that the part numbers for any pieces on your surgical trays are registered and thus are able to be tracked or investigated by the FAA. CPT Medical, Inc. further has internal procedures that includes verification from manufacturers of place of product production.
The Trade Agreements Act of 1979 was passed by Congress to serve several purposes. Firstly, it aims to foster international trade and expand the United States’ ability to engage in trade deals. Secondly, it hopes to further define and better enforce trading rules and regulations. Finally, the act also approved agreements made in a previous act in 1974.
In reference to surgical trays, the part of the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) that is most applicable is the goal of opening international trade deals because it defined various products as compliant if they are manufactured in the United States or in one of the other countries listed in the agreement as a “designated country”. Designated countries include places the United States has an existing free trade agreement with, countries that participate in the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement, “least developed countries”, as well as Caribbean Basin countries.
Due to the requirement put forward by the TAA that all goods and services procured by the federal government (or any government-funded agencies including most hospitals) must be manufactured in either the United States or a designated country, it can be difficult sometimes to insure compliance if there is uncertainty about where products like surgical trays originated or were actually constructed.
On occasion, the TAA will run a compliance check and investigate the origin of an acquired product or service. In these instances, a company or hospital in fact, may have to provide evidence that their surgical trays have been manufactured in the United States or a designated country, or they will be subject to punishment under the rules and regulations of the FAA.
In the specific case of surgical trays, the easiest and most obvious step toward compliance would be simply to make sure that the trays you have purchased originate from one of the countries specified in the list of designated countries. However, surgical trays present a unique issue that may also come up under the FAA: sometimes the customized items contained on surgical trays are new or unavailable from one of the designated countries. CPT Medical, Inc. provides a solution to this issue: “You need to know that the vendors of the tools you’re purchasing have updated the part numbers for their products in the DAPA Management System.” This insures that the part numbers for any pieces on your surgical trays are registered and thus are able to be tracked or investigated by the FAA. CPT Medical, Inc. further has internal procedures that includes verification from manufacturers of place of product production.
The Trade Agreement Act was passed on the twenty-sixth of July, 1979. It was a congressional act whose purpose primarily pertained to negotiations made between the United States and foreign powers as regards trade agreements. Specifically, the trade act of 1979 governs agreements which were made between the US and other countries during the Trade Act of 1974. The purposes of this act are mainly implementation of 1974 agreements, but the act still has effect today. This is because it was also designed to help open up the trading system of the world with expanded commerce opportunities conducted under improved international trade regulation and enforcement. While written with open language, this language can have a restrictive nature when it comes to the acquisition of goods or services that will be used in federal contracts. This happens when those managing a project decide to run it through a TAA compliance check. Generally, products remain compliant so long as they’re manufactured in either the US or one of a list of designated countries that are allowed. The complete list of countries can be obtained from the Federal Acquistion Regulation (FAR) 52.225-5.
So long as surgical trays you’ve purchased are produced in any of these countries, they should, by default, be TAA compliant. The difficulty comes with the implements that are contained in those trays. Sometimes medical breakthroughs come in the form of a new surgical tool that just hasn’t made its way into mainstream. In order to be sure that all equipment on your custom medical trays passes a TAA compliance check, you need to know that the vendors of the tools you’re purchasing have updated part numbers for their products in the DAPA Management System. Information to be included in the update pertains to the country from which a given product has been sourced.
The health of your community could depend on whether or not you’ve received the proper order of custom surgical trays. Such trays are usually sterilized beforehand, and are already configured in ways surgeons can immediately utilize. Streamlined surgical tray procedures can facilitate quicker operation, leading to faster recovery and better health over time
The Trade Agreements Act, or TAA, applies to GSA contracts which are vehicles for selling products on a federal, state, or local level. GSA contracts include pre-set terms, conditions and pricing that make the sales process more simple. The products that are discussed as part of these GSA contracts must comply with the Trade Agreements Act (TAA). All health products and other related products that fall under the GSA contracts apply.
When a health product is being considered for the Trade Agreements Act, that product needs to have been completed on a manufacture level in an approved country, otherwise compliance does not occur. There is an approved list of locations that fall under this category and these products can then become part of an approved GSA contract. The list is pretty extensive, making this process a bit simpler than it may originally sound.
In addition to health products, other related services apply to the Trade Agreement Act. What is taken into consideration is where the legal address of the company is located rather than where the services themselves are provided. As long as that address is located in an approved country or location, TAA compliance is secured.
The government attempts to provide strict enforcement when it comes to these GSA and TAA related products. While there may occasionally be a product or company that is located in a non-approved TAA country, a large percentage of the products and services are compliant. There are currently more than 20,000 contracts and products that are part of this act. Steps are being taken to improve upon the process of checking and enforcing compliance. Often times, when companies or products are overlooked by the GSA, reports are made by other compliant businesses that are unhappy with their competitor’s non-compliance. An investigation then takes place and if necessary, the products or services are removed. Confidentiality is ensured when a report is filed in order to protect the integrity of the other party that filed the report.
While the Trade Agreement Act, or TAA, relates to a wide variety of different products and services, health-related products fit onto this list as well. Achieving compliance on a GSA and TAA level allows health product companies to take their business to the next level and secure some pretty large clientele. Gaining leverage with the Department of Health and some other big organizations can bring in far more revenue than occurs when just sticking with smaller, privately owned companies.