Azerbaijan holds talks with 12 countries on WTO admission

Azerbaijan holds talks with 12 countries on WTO admission

Azerbaijan is holding talks with 12 countries for the admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Mahmud Mammadguliyev told journalists.

He said Azerbaijan is getting questions from the member states, answers will be prepared for the questions.

“As a result of the talks, the countries gave us new proposals. We are working with regard to all these issues. I suppose the bilateral talks will be continued in the first half of the next year. We will try to hold the second round of talks and the next meeting of the working group in the second half of the year,” he said.

Mahmud Mammadguliyev said the principled moment of the talks is the status of Azerbaijan upon admission to the organization.

“There are several statuses – developed country, developing country and the least developed country. Being admitted to the organization as a developed country is favorable for Azerbaijan. If we can get this status, we will be able to get some privileges. Talks are being held with regard to this, some countries agree to it, others do not. The second issue is of course the improvement of the legislation in compliance with the WTO standards. We have got an action plan. Some of it has already been fulfilled. There are 40-50 documents, 30 of them have been approved in accordance with the organization’s requirements. We are trying to complete the rest this year or next year,” he said.

Mahmud Mammadguliyev said the process of talks is long-lasting.

“You know that Russia has been holding intensive talks for 17 years, while we started the talks in 2004,” he said.

10 December 2010 [17:15]

Source: today.az