Azerbaijan's entrance to the World Trade Organization (WTO), problems and prospects, are discussed at a seminar held with the participation of representatives of the government and private sector of Azerbaijan, as well as international organizations in Baku on October 16.
The Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev pointed out the political will of Azerbaijan to enter the WTO and stressed that this issue is a priority for the country. According to him, the dynamically developing economy of Azerbaijan, allows expanding its trade relations with all countries around the world and becoming a member of a unified trade organization.
The U.S. Ambassador in the WTO Peter Alger shared this idea. Azerbaijan possesses all premises for entrance to the WTO, he underlined. The membership in the WTO will empower Azerbaijan to participate in the international trade system. In addition, he considered necessary to hold economical reforms in Azerbaijan and to bring the legislation into conformity with international legislation
However, Azerbaijan is still to gain a support of rest major WTO members to have a status of developing country. Only 4-5 countries play key role in the WTO and Azerbaijan should have supports of the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia and Canada to receive a status of a developing country. So far, three countries Iman, Georgia and Moldova, voiced their readiness to sign with Azerbaijan a bilateral protocol on completion of talks on Azerbaijan's entrance to WTO
A status of a developing country e\will en bale Azerbaijan to preserve subsidizing the agriculture on the level of 10% of the cost of product, whereas for developed countries the limit is 5%. After the completion of writing off of debts the collective farms and state farms, the level of subsiding was 13-14%. Azerbaijan is not ready to refuse from zero-taxation of agriculture products on all types of taxes except tax code. WO regards it as the violation of trade and rivalry.
To enter the WTO Azerbaijan must improve its legislation in the customs sector and service sphere. In accordance with an action plan undersigned by the Azerbaijani President the process is to complete in 2007. Azerbaijan should not use any discrimination in respect to its partners.
Thus, the attitude towards the foreign companies should be the same as towards the locals. All documents should be transparent in order to remove dual standards. Moreover, country should announce tariffs for every product in the service sector as well. After it Azerbaijan will obtain equal rights with the rest 149 WTO member-countries. One of major principles of the WTO is not to allow dual standard in respect any of the countries.
However, the chairman of the State Customs Committee, Aydin Aliyev, said that during import-export operations some WTO member-states come out with proposals on the application of more profitable customs collections, while the tariffs for some products will be on zero level. Obviously, any foreign partner is interested in export of more and more goods, while Azerbaijan approaches the issue from the aspect of national interests.
The main problem in the industry of Azerbaijan is a loose system of standardization and certification. Due to the problem that markets are filled with low-quality products. It is noteworthy that the country recently has reduced its dependability on food imports. However, in order to develop the food industry, such problems like high rate of VAT, insufficient maturity of the banking sector, loose development of the leasing sector, low rate on import, which is applied to finished commodity needs to be addressed.
Infrastructure in the regions where foodstuff is mainly produced is reflected in the unprofitability of the enterprises. All these problems are reflected in volumes of the production of foods. So, if 1995, the growth of the output was at the level 10.8%, it became 3.2% in 2000, and 3.5% in 2005.