Azerbaijan, Baku, 5 April /corr. Trend I.Khalilova / Azerbaijan's Minister of Economic Development, Haydar Babayev, left for Geneva to attend the fifth round of talks between the Government of Azerbaijan and the working group of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 6 May, the Ministry stated.
The negotiation group of Azerbaijan headed by the Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev has been in Geneva for a week since the end of April. They firstly attended the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Bilateral talks held with the WTO member-countries who has requested for the meetings to be held with Azerbaijan. They included India, Sri Lanka, Korea, and Norway. These countries raised questions relating to various spheres and the trade system.
The European Union, as one of the largest exporters of the agricultural products in the world, suggested the tariffs offered by Azerbaijan to be decreased. However, within the measures on food security, the Country took several steps to expand subsidies for the agrarian sector and prepare to extend tax privileges for agricultural producers. In addition, the European Union offered to decrease custom duties on several commodities up to zero, but the Government of Azerbaijan removed VAT and custom duties of several products (rice, food grain). Today 15% of import custom duty is applied to products in industry in Azerbaijan and 0-0.5% to raw product.
The dates of the talks have been repeatedly revise. Each year the requirements for the WTO candidate countries are toughened. Therefore, the Government intends to totally accelerate this process, but it should take place in line with the interest of the country. Azerbaijan tried to join the WTO under the status of a developing country as it would gain 10% access to subsidies for agriculture.
Currently Azerbaijan is holding talks with the USA, European Union, South Korea, Japan, and China's Province of Taiwan.
Azerbaijan completed talks with Turkey, Georgia, Oman, Moldova and UAE, with a protocol being signed only with Turkey.
The key requirement of the WTO member-countries is to liberalize various markets. However, Azerbaijan tries to maintain protection elements for 8-10 sectors, including banking, insurance, telecommunication and energy markets.
The 2 August 2006 Presidential order envisages bringing the national legislation into conformity with WTO requirements. According to the order, relevant governmental organizations are in charge of devising 40 legislation acts, including 16 law drafts.
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