Interest widens for bilateral talks with Azerbaijan under WTO accession

Argentina expressed a desire to start bilateral negotiations with Azerbaijan within the framework of the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the head of the negotiating group, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Mahmud Mamedguliyev told at the meeting with the companies - members of the Caspian-European Integration Business Club (CEIBC) on Wednesday.

"Although the Government of Azerbaijan has not received an official request from Argentina on this issue yet, but this country has expressed a desire to enter into negotiations," the Deputy Minister said.

According to him, on the one hand the expansion of the list of countries with which Azerbaijan is negotiating within the framework of the WTO accession, creates additional complexity, but on the other hand it is an encouraging fact that a country like Argentina sees Azerbaijan as a market for their products, mainly agricultural products, and wants to expand economic cooperation.

According to Mamedguliyev, the next round of bilateral and multilateral negotiations and meeting of the working group on accession of Azerbaijan to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is scheduled for late October - early November 2013.

"However, a concrete date hasn't been determined yet. We sent our answers to the questions that were sent to us after the previous working meeting, as well as tables regarding multilateral negotiations on agriculture. All the documents that were necessary to be sent are already in the secretariat of WTO," Mamedguliyev said.

The last talks were held in Geneva in early June, 2013.

To date, Azerbaijan is in the process of bilateral negotiations with the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, European Union, Norway, India, South Korea, Taiwan Province of China, Canada, Switzerland and Honduras to join the WTO.

Azerbaijan started negotiations in 2004.

The negotiations have been completed and protocols were signed with Turkey, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The country is at the stage of signing the protocol with Moldova, which still considers the document.

The working group on Azerbaijan at the WTO Secretariat was established on 16 July 1997.
Since 1997, Azerbaijan has been represented at the World Trade Organization as an observer.


/Trend/