Tajikistan Nears WTO Membership

Tajikistan has cleared a significant hurdle in its bid to achieve membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) after the Working Party overseeing its accession approved the package spelling out its terms of entry to the organization.

The Director General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy commented: “Tajikistan is one step closer to becoming a member of the WTO family. This is a sign of solid confidence in the WTO and in the multilateral trading system. Accession to the WTO will firmly integrate Tajikistan into the global economy and the global trading system, providing an open, transparent and non-discriminatory environment. As a new member, Tajikistan will be in a better position to use trade as a tool for its development and growth, as others have done."

As part of the accession accord, Tajikistan has agreed to undertake a series of important commitments to further open its trade regime and accelerate its integration into the world economy. Tajikistan would apply WTO provisions uniformly throughout its entire territory, including in regions engaging in border trade, special economic zones and areas where special regimes for tariffs, taxes and regulations are established.

From the date of accession, Tajikistan has committed to fully apply all WTO provisions without any recourse to transitional periods. It has committed to join the Information Technology Agreement upon accession and will submit an application for membership of the Government Procurement Agreement within one year of its accession.

Tajikistan has concluded six bilateral agreements on market access for services and thirteen on market access for goods, and has agreed to 'bound' rates, i.e. maximum ceiling levels for all its import tariffs. Tariffs will be “ordinary customs duties” only, within committed levels, with no additional duties and charges. The average of Tajikistan’s bound tariffs for all products, is 8%. For agricultural products, this average is 10.4% while for non-agricultural products the average is 7.6%.

Other tax-related commitments include that:

• The country will apply its domestic taxes in a non-discriminatory manner to imports regardless of country of origin and to domestically-produced products;
• Tajikistan will not apply quantitative restrictions on imports or other non-tariff measures - such as licensing, quotas, bans, permits, prior authorization requirements and other restrictions - having equivalent effect. Import licensing procedures would be applied in accordance with WTO rules;
• Tajikistan will eliminate and not introduce duties, taxes, fees and charges applied to exports, except on about 300 specific tariff lines identified in its accession report;
• Tajikistan will notify the WTO of changes to its duties, taxes, fees and charges applied to exports. Export licensing requirements, quantitative restrictions and other export control requirements would be brought in line with WTO provisions; and,
• Tajikistan will observe all WTO provisions in its participation in preferential trade agreements. Tajikistan will notify its Free Trade Areas and Customs Union Agreements to the relevant WTO Committee.

The Working Party will now send its accession recommendation to the General Council of December 11-12, 2012, when all members are expected to approve these documents and accept Tajikistan as a WTO member.

November 6, 2012

Source: Tax news