Page 43 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Fakhri M. Mammadov: Azebaijan–WTO relations, problems and future perspectives

Key words: WTO and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan WTO relations, Foreign Trade of Azerbaijan,

trade organizations, international trade.

JEL Classification Codes: F13

1. The Main Directions of Azerbaijan-WTO Collaboration

If state or customs territory want to become a member of the WTO they must have full autonomy in

the conduct of its trade policies, but all WTO members must agree on the terms. This is done through

the establishment of a working party of WTO members and through a process of negotiations.

The present stage of the world development is increasingly characterized by globalization

and regionalization trends. Azerbaijan exerts all efforts to make its contribution to these

processes. Azerbaijan is a member of more than twenty international economic organizations and

has observer status at the World Trade Organization. The Republic of Azerbaijan is striving to

become a full-fledged member of the WTO and is convinced that this membership will give a

strong impetus to the transformation of the country's economy into a market economy.

Azerbaijan's Working Party was established on 16 July 1997. Azerbaijan submitted a

Memorandum on its Foreign Trade Regime in April 1999. The second meeting of the Working

Party was held on 14 October 2004. WTO’s main goal is the trade liberalization. In every round

of talks new agreements are adopted and new obligations appear and it makes membership

process harder from year by year.

Though WTO members seek their economic and trade interests their main goal is

political factor. It shows that the membership process to WTO is more like political problem than

economic. Curiously, the closer a post-Soviet country is to the EU, the less it exports there. In

2000, only 16 per cent of Ukrainian exports went to the EU, compared with 20 per cent of

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