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Working Party for Azerbaijanâ€™s WTO Accession meets in Geneva

27 July 2009 14:41 (UTC +04:00)

The meeting was attended by representatives of ministries of foreign affairs, economic development, justice, industry and energy, finance, taxation and agriculture, as well as the State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patents, the State Committee on Property and the Agency for Copyright.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahmud Mammadguliev, who heads Azeri delegation in negotiations on the countryâ€™s WTO Accession, delivered a report at the meeting, describing the governmentâ€™s efforts towards sustainable socio-economic development, economic diversification and development of non-oil sector.

He noted that the revised proposals on goods and services and other documents have been submitted to the WTO Secretariat and the countries concerned.

He also briefed the member countries about the progress in Azerbaijanâ€™s work done over the last 6 months and to be done in the future towards bringing the national legislation in line with WTO agreements.

At the meeting, representatives of several countries (Turkey, Egypt on behalf of the African Group, Paraguay, China, Brazil, Pakistan, Jordan on behalf of landlocked countries) expressed support for Azerbaijan’s accession to the WTO on favorable terms and praised Azerbaijan efforts undertaken towards the membership.

United States, the European Commission, Canada, Australia, South Korea and other countries, in principle, supported Azerbaijan’s WTO accession.

Further questions by member states were answered and it was decided that that member states present new questionnaire on Azerbaijanâ€™s foreign trade regime by 14 September 2009 and the 8th meeting of the Working Group be held at the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2010.