Geneva negotiations and 13th meeting of WTO Working Group on Azerbaijan's accession: 20-22 of June 2016
On 20-22 July bilateral negotiations were conducted with the representatives of Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia on goods and services. At the same dates bilateral consultation was held with Kazakhstan. On July 21 multilateral meeting on agriculture was conducted.
The concessions requested by Azerbaijan to be granted under developing country status:
- “De minimis” (minimum permitted amount of domestic support expressed in percentage to the amount of total annual agriculture production) - 10%
- Total Aggregate Measurement of Support (the sum of all domestic support provided in favour of agricultural producers, calculated as the sum of all aggregate measurements of support for basic agricultural products) – USD 1 bln.
- The right to use an additional amount for regeneration of rural areas after de-occupation of Nagorny Karabakh and surrounding areas
- The right to use Article 6.2 of Agreement on Agriculture
Canada, US, Brazil, Australia, Argentina and Russian Federation commented on this subject.
On July 22 13th meeting of Working Group on Azerbaijan took place. Subjects of discussions and mandatory commitments to be undertaken by Azerbaijan:
- Elimination of export restrictions
- Holding list and rates of export tariffs invariable
- Elimination of discriminative tax exsemptions during accession
- Aligning excise rates
- Aligning charges for services rendered
- Elimination of export subsidies
- Implementation of necessary measures with regard to competition (adoption of relevant legislation)
- Aligning sanitary and phytosanitary measures to international standards (adoption of relevant legislation)
- Acceleration of work on technical regulations (adoption of relevant legislation)
Part of questions was replied by the members of Azerbaijan's Working Party. At the end of the meeting, Member countries decided to submit their questions to Azerbaijan in a short period of time.