Azerbaijan, Baku, May 31 / Trend A. Akhundov, A. Hasanov /
The Azerbaijani government may hold the next round of the negotiations on joining the WTO in July, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev told Trend today.
"The next round of the negotiations may be held in the second half of July, perhaps a little earlier or later," he said.
He said that Azerbaijan got the questions, mostly from the EU and the U.S.
"We have got questions, as always, from the U.S. and the EU," he said.
"There are also questions from other countries. These are very diverse questions. All of them relate to Azerbaijan's foreign trade regime.
They are being specified, expanded and intensified during discussions.
This is a complicated process."
Bilateral talks were held with the U.S., EU, Norway, Canada, Ecuador and Japan. The Azerbaijani delegation also held meetings with several officials of the WTO and UN experts during the visit to Geneva.
Azerbaijan has been represented at the World Trade Organisation as an observer since 1997 and began negotiating in 2004. Azerbaijan holds bilateral negotiations with the United States, Japan, Brazil, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, European Union, Norway, India, South Korea, Taiwan Province of China, Canada and Switzerland for today.
Negotiations with Turkey, the Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates, Georgia have been completed and protocols were signed. The country is in the process of signing the protocol with Moldova, which still considers the document.
Within the talks Azerbaijan continues working on adjusting national legislative base in accordance with the WTO requirements as well as on improving current trade regime. About 40-50 legislative acts should meet requirements of the organizations and 30 of them have already been unified and work in this direction will continue this year.
The working group on Azerbaijan to the WTO was established on July 16, 1997.