It
appears that Motorola may be ineligible to sell many of their products, including the popular Minitor VI pager, through GSA, or to users making payment with federal funds. A request for
clarification is currently pending at the department level (both GSA and FEMA). It is my understanding that this issue may require involvement by the U.S Attorney General. How did all this happen?
Without getting too complicated, it is necessary only to understand that GSA Schedule Contracts are subject to the Trade
Agreements Act (TAA), meaning all products listed on the GSA Schedule Contract must be manufactured or "substantially transformed” in a "designated
country” In other words those countries that are not participants in the TAA agreement (Click here for a current list as of July 2014) are excluded as GSA suppliers. Notably, this includes China, India and Malaysia.
Now things get a little complicated. The majority of Motorola products, as best we can determine, are manufactured in (you guessed it), China and Malaysia. So this would indicate that these products can not be sold or purchased on GSA contract, but wait - there's more!
If the Federal Government can not purchase products that are not TAA compliant on GSA, it follows that Federal Grant money must follow the same requirements as GSA. What a revoltin' development this is! (Some of you will recall where that statement came from).
So, if Federal Government agencies are prohibited from purchasing non TAA compliant products, then it would appear the grant funds from DHS and agencies within DHS (such as FEMA) cannot allow spending of Federal grant money to purchase non TAA compliant products! There is no final decision on what action will be taken at this time, but for now, wouldn't it be a good idea to consider products that are TAA Compliant - like Relm Wireless for P25 radios and US Alert for monitor pagers? We've got them, and at great prices too! For more information, just give us a call at 800.489.2611.
