Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.15 / Trend A. Akhundov /
The Azerbaijani government agreed with the World Trade Organisation (WTO)'s proposal to postpone the ninth round of multilateral negotiations for early 2012, Chief Negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev told Trend today. Earlier, the meeting with the WTO working group was planned to be held in Geneva on December 9.
"As a result of consultations with the WTO Department which deals with the adoption of countries to the organisation, we agreed to postpone the meeting to January or February 2012," he said.
The meeting was postponed to allow a number of issues to be considered including Russia's accession to the WTO, he said.
"It is expected to hold a meeting at the level of trade ministers of member countries in mid-December," he said. "This is an annual conference. The issues on further liberalisation of world trade will be discussed within the Doha Round of negotiations. So, the department asked the Azerbaijani side to postpone this meeting for early 2012 and we agreed."
Leaders of the G20 countries consider 2011 as a unique chance to complete the Doha round of talks on global trade, the declaration adopted at the summit in Seoul said.
According to the document, one of the G20 summit's results is the leaders' determination to give guidance to their representatives to participate in comprehensive negotiations to promptly bring the Doha Round to a successful, ambitious and balanced conclusion in accordance with its mandate and on the basis of the achieved progress.
The Doha round began on January 1, 2001 after the decision of the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha (Qatar) in November 2000. Then it was planned to complete the round of talks by late 2005 by adopting a package of agreements to reduce industrial tariffs, services, trade related aspects of intellectual property rights, WTO rules on subsidies and anti-dumping, as well as support for agriculture.
A new consolidated report, the Factual Summary on Azerbaijan's proposals for member countries will be discussed.
Earlier, the Azerbaijani side has submitted answers to the questions of WTO member countries to the secretariat, where the WTO will prepare a factual summary on Azerbaijan.
The last working group meeting was held on Oct. 18, last year in Geneva. Bilateral meetings on goods and services were held with the U.S., Canada, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and the Province of Taiwan and other WTO members on Oct. 19-22.
Although the country is in negotiations with 12 WTO member countries, the Azerbaijani delegation held bilateral talks with the EU, Ecuador, Switzerland, Brazil, and China in Geneva on July 25-29. The U.S. expressed a willingness to meet with Azerbaijan's negotiating group in multilateral negotiations.
The Deputy Minister failed to name the date of the regular bilateral negotiations with WTO member countries. "It is not planned to hold bilateral negotiations in the near future," he said. "The last meeting was in July."
The country is in the process of negotiations with the United States, Japan, Brazil, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, the European Union, Norway, India, South Korea, the Province of Taiwan, Canada and Switzerland. Azerbaijan began negotiations in 2004.
At present, negotiations are complete and protocols signed with Turkey, the Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Georgia. The country is at the stage of signing the protocol with Moldova, which is still considering the document. Kyrgyzstan, however, has agreed to sign.
Additionally, Azerbaijan continues to bring its national legal framework in line with WTO requirements and aims to improve its existing trade scheme. About 40 to 50 legislative acts must comply with the organisation's requirements, with nearly 30 documents having been unified. Work on this direction will continue into next year.
The World Trade Organisation sponsored the working group on Azerbaijan, established on July 16, 1997. Since 1997 Azerbaijan has been represented at the WTO as an observer.