Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Khalilova / The Government of Azerbaijan hopes to hold negotiations with the WTO Secretariat with regards to the conduct of the 5th round of talks on Azerbaijan's entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 22 June in Geneva, stated the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Mahmud Mammadguliyev.
Azerbaijan wishes to join the WTO with the developing country status , but for this it needs to receive the support from key WTO member-countries such as USA, Japan, Canada, Australia and European countries. "We will raise the question of providing Azerbaijan with the status of a developing country, but Azerbaijan's key partners say that this would be difficult. However, this issue may be discussed over concrete sphere such as agriculture," Mammadguliyev said.
Up to now, Azerbaijan has held four meetings with WTO. The first two meetings focused on the external trade regime, and since 2005 Azerbaijan has begun full-scale negotiations. The bilateral negotiations are held with regards to access to the Azerbaijani market of commodities and services, multilateral and internal support for agriculture and export subsidies in this area. New proposals have been presented on price, anti-monopoly, customs and tax policies. In its proposals, Azerbaijan has tried to make reasonable concessions because the liberalization of the service market is an important direction to attract investments into the country and open new workplaces. In addition, liberalization should be made in accordance with the protection of the internal services and maintain the competition. Azerbaijan joined WTO in 1997 with a status as observer.