Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.24
By Abbas Akhundov - Trend:
The next round of negotiations on Azerbaijan's joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be held in the second half of February 2014, head of the negotiation group Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Mahmud Mammadguliyev told Trend on Monday.
"The negotiations will be held from February 16 and last a week," he said.
The meeting with WTO's working group was scheduled for late October and early November 2013 but was postponed.
"The postponement of the negotiations was connected with the organisation's busy schedule with countries in the very last stage of accession to the WTO," he said.
"Everything has been prepared by us. All the necessary documents have been submitted to the WTO secretariat," Mammadguliyev said earlier.
The Azerbaijani side has sent the answers to all questions that were addressed to the country following the previous working meeting, as well as tables related to multilateral negotiations on agriculture.
The last talks were held in Geneva in early June 2013.
To date, Azerbaijan is in the process of bilateral negotiations with the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, European Union, Norway, India, South Korea, Taiwan Province of China, Canada, Switzerland and Honduras to join the WTO.
Azerbaijan started negotiations in 2004. They are now complete and protocols were signed with Turkey, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The country is at the stage of signing the protocol with Moldova which is still considering the document.
Azerbaijan's working group at the WTO Secretariat was established on July 16, 1997.
Since 1997, the country has been represented at the World Trade Organisation as an observer.
Translated by NH
Edited by SM