Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Khalilova / The Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) scheduled an informal meeting for 21 June in Geneva with the working group on Azerbaijan's entrance to the WTO, said the Head of the Secretariat of the State Commission on Azerbaijan's Entrance to WTO, Adalat Muradov said on 11 June.
"We will hear the position of the WTO during the forthcoming meeting," Muradov said. According to him, the 5th stage of the talks will take place no earlier than September-October 2007 and it also depends on the WTO Secretariat.
Up to now, Azerbaijan has held four meetings with the 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 as the liberalization of the service market is an important direction to attract investments into the country and open new workplaces and employment opportunities. In addition, liberalization should be made in accordance with the protection of the internal services and maintain competition. Azerbaijan joined WTO in 1997 with the status of observer.