Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 April / Trend corr. I.Khalilova / The World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat has set the preliminary date for 5th round of negotiations of Azerbaijan with the Task Group in Geneva on 6 May, Mahmud Mammadkuliyev, the Deputy Foreign Minister stated.
The date for the negotiations was postponed for several times. The Government is trying to accelerate the process, as the demands for WTO member-countries have been toughening every year. Azerbaijan is trying to join WTO as a developing country, which enables it to receive 10% of access to subsidies for the agrarian sector.
The Task Group will have to uphold the interest of Azerbaijan before the key players of WTO, like the United States and European Union. European Union, being one of the biggest agricultural product exporters, proposes to decrease rates in Azerbaijan. There were proposals to decrease rates on some commodities to zero. The import custom rate of 15% is imposed on the final product and 0 or 0.5% on the raw materials.
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