Azerbaijan's WTO accession possible by 2010, says Deputy FM

Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev said Azerbaijan has already submitted all the paperwork related to accession to the WTO secretariat.

 He added that Azerbaijan has sent a package of proposals to Turkey in connection with the membership and is anticipating the answer now.

Azerbaijan intends to start bilateral negotiations with the European Union in the nearest future too.

He added that the negotiations on agriculture subsidy component are ongoing.

"For product specific subsidy in the developed countries, it is 5 percent of the production of that product and, in addition, for non-product specific subsidy, it is further 5 percent of total agricultural production. For the developing countries, it is 10 percent of both. That's why we are working to achieve Azerbaijan's accession as a developing country," he added.

Mammadguliyev said Azerbaijan, which was granted observer status in 1997, can achieve successful accession to the World Trade organization by 2010 if everything goes right. APA-Economics