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Azerbaijan May Continue Bilateral Negotiations with WTO Member-Countries in 2008

Business Materials 20 November 2007 15:59 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. I.Khalilova / The Azerbaijani Government postponed bilateral negotiations on joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the European Union and United States, Mahmud Mammadguliyev, head of the negotiation group and Deputy Foreign Minister, said. The first bilateral negotiations with the European Union were held in Brussels on 24 May and United States in Geneva on 20 June.

The next negotiations were expected to be held in capitals of aforesaid countries before the 5th round of negotiations. The date of the meeting will be set after the countries get familiar with the new proposals of Azerbaijan on trade and services, which require about five or six weeks.

" Azerbaijan has not submitted the proposals on trade for bilateral negotiations to the aforesaid countries, for holding multilateral meetings in the future," Mammadguliyev said.

The countries' demands include liberalization of the service system. They propose to open markets in the financial and communication sectors.

There are differences in the EU and United States positions on the audiovisual market. The EU demands special preferences for itself in the audiovisual market. However, the United States is against this and considers that all countries must have equal levels.

The EU and the US have differences in the audio visual market. Azerbaijan proposed to make changes to the land legislation. In compliance with current land legislation land may be rented by Azerbaijani citizens for 99 years, however, foreigners have no right to purchase land.

Differences remain in construction and architectural services. The US is demanding the removal of limits imposed on foreign companies in the construction market.

The EU and US are also demanding the removal of limits on the opening of braches of foreign banks in the country.

Bilateral negotiations with Georgia, Moldova, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates have been completed. Bilateral talks on goods and services are being held with the EU, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan and the US.

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