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Trade Agreements Act (TAA) required for General Service Administration (GSA) purchases

TAA requires that products originate from the United States or any other country listed in the Act. A failure to comply with TAA provisions can result in awarded bid cancellations, expensive fines, and exclusion from federal contracting.

Sourcing TAA compliant IT is challenging because most component manufacturers are overseas and do not qualify as a TAA approved country. Understanding the requirement and how to overcome them is part of creating a compliant supply chain.

What is TAA and when does it apply?

TAA refers to the Trade Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. § 2501—2581), which is intended to foster fair and open international trade. TAA requires that products must be produced or undergo “substantial transformation” within the United States or a designated country, including countries that have reciprocal trade agreements with the United States, Caribbean Basin countries, and certain “least developed” countries.

China and other manufacturing countries are not approved by TAA. This presents a significant challenge when sourcing IT solutions for the government.

TAA compliance applies to federal procurement contracts such as GSA (General Service Administration), IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity), and DOD (Department of Defense) contracts.

TAA is applicable to all orders regardless of the dollar amount

It was thought that TAA only applied to the schedules threshold (currently at 200,000 for goods and services). However, according to the Act, “only US-made or designated country end products shall be offered and sold under Schedule contracts.”

Translation: all products under GSA Schedules need to be TAA compliant. TAA requirements are built into GSA Schedule contracts, IDIQ contracts, and most DOD contracts.

GSADepartment of Defense

Proline offers TAA compliant optical transceiver solutions.

The vast majority of our products proudly carry a U.S. country of origin as they are engineered here as high performing plug-and-play solutions with compatibility in OEM hardware such as Cisco, Juniper, and Arista.

Contact us today to fulfill your fiber projects.

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