Azerbaijan should accelerate its process for entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Arif Huseyn, Head of the Department for Entrance to WTO in the Secretariat of the Organization, who is in Azerbaijan on a two-day visit, stated, Trend reports.
The Doha round will yield results in two years, and this may affect Azerbaijan. But on the other hand, as long as entrance to the WTO is delayed, the country may lose out. In addition, new countries may enter the WTO over the next few years, Huseyn said.
According to him, the Doha round has two key principles elimination of the export subsidies (liquidation of the agricultural subsidies) and the gradual elimination of internal subsidies.
A section of Azerbaijan's population is involved in agriculture. Huseyn suggested that the government accelerate the production industry and infrastructure that would generate new workplaces as well as developing the service sector and information technology.
According to Huseyn, the main issue for gaining entrance to the WTO is how long the internal reforms are delayed. For instance, Vietnam was only accepted into the WTO this year, after a 12-year negotiation process and Russia too is still in talks for the same amount of time with no decision being made as yet.
Although Azerbaijan has delayed in its efforts to join the WTO by several years, I would suggest that we look upon this as a long-term process. The country should bring the legislation into conformity with European and international standards. It needs to increase investment opportunities and create new workplaces. If the process of modernizing the national legislation, adopting normative acts and mechanisms of applying them are accelerated, I believe that significant progress will take place in 2007 with regards to the negotiations process of Azerbaijan, Huseyn stated.
The Head of the negotiations group, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Mahmud Mammadguliyev, believes that the country is capable of accelerating the process, as well as finding a balance to defend the internal market.
At presently the WTO unites 150 countries.