Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 February / corr. Trend I. Khalilova/ The European Commission expressed its preparedness to assist Azerbaijan in agriculture, health and phytosanitary services, intellectual property, standardization and trade in the meeting of Sub-Committee on Trade, Economy and Relevant Juridical Issues held in Baku , Asgar Alakbarov, the head of the Investment Policy Department of the Ministry of Economic Development said.
EU representatives said that they are concerned about the fact that the big part (93%) of the Azerbaijani export to the European Union countries account for oil, gas and mineral oil. They consider the diversification of export to be important and are prepared to assist in this regard within the framework of opportunities for the country to use the system of preferences of EU (GSP) which enables to export products on privileged tariffs. Meanwhile the products should meet international quality standards. Due to the fact that Azerbaijani products do not meet these standards, very small part of them uses that system of preferences.
The EU representatives stated that EU is prepared to support Azerbaijan's entry to the World Trade Organization. The EU can assist Azerbaijan in expert examination and certification. Azerbaijani representatives informed the EU experts about the progress in sanitary and phytosanitary service and asked the technical and financial support of EU in establishment of metrological and veterinary laboratories.
According to Alakbarov, the technical assistance is needed to examine new legislative acts concerning intellectual property.
The EU experts said that it is important to liberalize banking and insurance market of Azerbaijan to create conditions for the inflow of the foreign capital and particularly for opening their branches.
The sub-committee for Trade, Economy and Relevant Juridical Issues between Azerbaijan and European Union was established within the framework of the Agreement on Cooperation and Partnership signed in 1996. The meeting is held annually in Baku.
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