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Azerbaijan might Be Late for Conduct of next Round of Talks with WTO Group in 2007

Business Materials 24 October 2007 12:54 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend I.Khalilova / The Azerbaijan Government might lose a chance of holding the 5th round of talks with the working group of the World Trade Organizations (WTO) by the end of 2007, unless the proposals on tariffs for WTO member-countries are confirmed and answers to their questions are prepared over two weeks, the Government said.

Consultants from the USAID assist Azerbaijan in the renewal of replies of the Government. To clarify the trade regime in the country experts from the WTO member-countries insist on irrefragable answer, particularly with respect to prices, tax and customs issues controlled by the Government.

Terms on ensuring foreigner's access to commodity and service market of Azerbaijan is still undergoing discussion at the Government. Proposals on services have been developed and the development of proposals on tariffs for import goods will be complete soon.

Ten of a total of 40 new legislative acts and changes to the existing standard documents have been developed, whilst only draft changes to the Law on Currency Regulation has been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers.

There have been changes to the laws on Patent, Trade Brands and Geographical Marks, on Copyrights and Combined Rules, on Standards Juridical Acts, as well as a bill on Technical Regulations and changes to the decree by the Cabinet of Ministers.

The Government said that firstly the legislative acts should be developed, whereas they can be adopted later.

p until now, Azerbaijan has held four meetings with the WTO. The first two were dedicated to the discussion of issues connected with the foreign trade regime. During the last two meetings, since 2005, the country has launched large-scale negotiations. The bilateral negotiations are held on issues on the access of goods and services to Azerbaijan's market, and the multilateral ones are held on the domestic support of the agriculture and export subsidies in this field.

Since 1997 Azerbaijan is represented in WTO in the status as an observer.

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