Azerbaijan started preparations for the 4th meeting of the working groups of the government and the World Trade Organization on equal membership of the country in the organization, the Deputy
Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, the chair of the national negotiations group, Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev said, the program on preparations for the 4th meeting has been determined and preparation work is implemented on its base.
"The next sitting would be held in Geneva in February, if we manage to get prepared for it. Everything will depend on us," Mammad-Guliyev said.
The secretariat of the state commission on negotiations with WTO told Trend the preparations envisages the organization of regular meetings of the negotiation groups which functions under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as control over preparation of answers to questions of members of WTO.
"In accordance with the schedule of preparations, 5 directions of activities have been determined: development of answers to questions of the WTO members, preparation of new information on subsidizing agriculture, designing and adoption of legislative acts in accordance with plan on changes to legislation in accordance with the WTO standards, development of renewed tariff proposals, development of renewed proposals on services. By February 2006, we plan to complete the work and convene a meeting with the working group of WTO," the Secretariat announced.
Thus far, questions have entered from the EU and Australia. On the third sitting of the working group, held on 30 June 2005, answers to questions, put during the past meetings, prospective plans on adjustment of the legislation to the WTO standards, a document on rural economy (phyto-sanitary and veterinary control), document on situation in adjustment of services, offers tariffs for access to the commodity and service market of Azerbaijan.
Since 1997, Azerbaijan has held a status of observer at WTO. The second meeting of the negotiation groups was organized in 2004