Azerbaijan State Agricultural University organized an event on the topic "Agriculture in the WTO"

Azerbaijan State Agricultural University organized an event on the topic

On 29 November 2019, the EU-funded project “Support and Strengthening Capacity of the WTO Department of the Ministry of Economy in the WTO Accession Negotiations” held a one-day event themed “Agriculture issues at the World Trade Organization” at the Azerbaijan State Agricultural University in Ganja.

Rainer Freund, Program Manager of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, briefly described programs implemented by the EU in the area of agriculture and food safety as well as regional and rural development in Azerbaijan. He also briefly commented on the state of world agricultural trade and the EU’s agricultural market access.

Anar Hatamov, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the Agricultural University touched upon the problems regarding the monitoring of the provision of product-specific subsidies and voiced the need to improve the mechanism of agriculture subsidization in Azerbaijan. He also noted that the WTO accession should not lead to an immediate decrease in the amount of subsidization.

Panos Konandreas, Senior International Expert and Former Head of UN Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Liaison Office in Geneva, presented WTO rules on agricultural trade and ongoing agriculture negotiations at the WTO. His presentation covered rules governing agriculture under General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1947, the problems facing countries in world agriculture trade in the 1960s-80s and the birth of the Agreement on Agriculture against this background. Mr. Konandreas also touched upon the ongoing agriculture negotiations taking place at the WTO and their possible implications for Azerbaijan’s accession negotiations.

More than sixty students and faculty members of the University attended the event. Lively exchanges took place between the audience and the speakers during and after the presentations.