Azerbaijan, Baku, April 29 / Trend , I.Khalilova/
The Azerbaijani government recommences bilateral negotiations on country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2009. The negotiations will be held in Geneva (Switzerland) ON May 4-8, head of the negotiation group, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev said.
"We are planning to hold negotiations with eight states, including Japan, South Korea, India and Ecuador," Mammadguliyev said.
The Azerbaijani government has developed proposals on trade and services on the basis of issues which were presented during previous meetings in 2008.
Consultations will be held with representatives of the UNICTAD (UN Conference on Trade and Development) IN Geneva.
"UNICTAD renders Azerbaijan expert support to Azerbaijan and we will hold discussions on several issues," Mammadguliyev said.
Azerbaijan is negotiating with the United States, Japan, Brazil, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, European Union, Norway, India, South Korea, and Taiwan Province of China. This year Switzerland will also included into the list. Gradually the list of these countries is increasing.
WTO participating States demand further liberalization of customs tariffs despite they do not exceed 15 percent in Azerbaijan. Our strategy is to prevent any damage on our economic development interests," Mammadguliyev said.
WTO participating States demand from Azerbaijan to reduce tariffs and taxes in certain spheres and continue insisting on liberalization of Azerbaijan's trade regime and market services. The demands are to transfer to banking market through opening direct subsidiaries and insurance market of the country, including creation of daughter companies with 100 percent foreign capital.
Since 1997 Azerbaijan is observer in the WTO. Under the estimations of the Central-Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) the member countries of the program will enter WTO until 2013.
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