Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan applied for WTO accession in June 1997 and submitted its Memorandum on the Foreign Trade Regime in 1999.

The first meeting of the Azerbaijan’s Working Party took place in June 2002. Azerbaijan’s most recent Working Part meeting – its sixth – was held in December 2008, to review additional documentation, including a factual summary. Azerbaijan’s seventh Working Party meeting is anticipated for summer 2009.

The United States has actively participated in Azerbaijan’s Working Party meetings, and has engaged in bilateral consultations with the Government of Azerbaijan on the margins of WTO and other meetings in Geneva and Washington.

The most recent bilateral consultations with on market access for goods and services occurred in November 2008. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier visited Baku in October 2006, to discuss the benefits of Azerbaijan acceding to the WTO.

The United States continues to provide technical assistance (through USAID) in the form of a resident advisor and his team for drafting documentation, training, legal drafting, and institution building in the areas of customs, licensing, intellectual property, standards and sanitary measures, to facilitate the accession process.