Government Procurement: United States Reported Opening More Opportunities to Foreign Firms Than Other Countries, but Better Data Are Needed, GAO-17-168: Published: Feb 9, 2017. Publicly Released: Mar 13, 2017. “The United States participates with 57 other countries in trade agreements that allow foreign firms to compete for government business. We found that the United States reported opening a greater percentage of its government procurement to foreign competition than the next five largest trade agreement partners combined. However, statistics reported for these trade agreements—including coverage data from the United States—aren’t always timely, accurate, or comparable. We recommended some strategies to improve statistical reporting by the United States and its U.S. trading partners.”