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Viewing cable 08GENEVA1078, December 2008 meeting of the Working Party for the WTO

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08GENEVA1078 2008-12-15 16:21 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED US Mission Geneva
R 151621Z DEC 08
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 7738
INFO AMEMBASSY BAKU 
AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 
AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 
AMEMBASSY YEREVAN 
AMEMBASSY ANKARA 
USEU BRUSSELS
UNCLAS GENEVA 001078 
 
 
PASS USTR FOR MORROW, KLEIN, BURKHEAD 
PASS STATE FOR EUR/AZE, EB/TPP-BTA 
PASS USDOC FOR JACOBS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD ECON WTRO USTR AZE
 
SUBJECT:  December 2008 meeting of the Working Party for the WTO 
Accession of Azerbaijan 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION 
 
1.  (U) Summary.  The sixth Working Party Meeting on Azerbaijan's 
Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), held on December 11 
in Geneva, was widely attended by other WTO Members and highlighted 
the renewed energy shown by Azerbaijan in a number of areas.  Prior 
to the meeting, Azerbaijan had submitted a Legislative Checklist, a 
TRIPs checklist, responses to Questions and Answers, and new 
information on agriculture supports and export subsidies.  The 
responses to Questions and Answers, in particular, allowed the 
Secretariat to draft a Factual Summary of the trade regime in 
Azerbaijan.  In the meeting, the United States and the European 
Communities (EC) posed numerous questions on the summary.  Further 
questions are to be submitted to the Secretariat by January 23. 
After appropriate responses are drafted by Azerbaijan and made 
available to WTO Members, the next Working Party will be scheduled. 
We project that this will occur sometime in the first half of 2009. 
A plurilateral on agriculture was not held during this meeting 
because agriculture negotiators from many delegations were engaged 
on Doha Round-related work.  The Chairman Lewalter suggested that 
that an agriculture plurilateral take place before the next WP 
meeting.  End Summary. 
 
Report on Bilateral Goods and Services Negotiations 
 
2.  (U) Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mamed-Khuliev reported 
that Azerbaijan is intensifying its efforts to diversify its non-oil 
sector and increasing its investment in infrastructure, especially 
in light of the current financial crisis.  He indicated that his 
delegation has stepped up bilateral negotiations.  The United States 
reported on its meeting with Azerbaijan on market access in November 
and noted that while progress was made, there is still a significant 
distance to go on both goods and services. (Note: See paragraph 9 
for additional information on the U.S. bilateral. End note) The 
European Communities noted the bilateral goods and services meeting 
that it held with Azerbaijan on December 9th in Brussels.  Brazil, 
India, Japan, Korea and Norway signaled that they had recently met 
with Azerbaijan on the margins of the WP meeting, or were planning 
to. Ukraine said it was initiating bilateral negotiations.  Pakistan 
spoke up generally in support of Azerbaijan's accession on 
appropriately flexible terms. Paraguay, as leader of the landlocked 
developing countries group, asked that Members take into 
consideration Azerbaijan's geographical situation, noting that trade 
transaction and transport costs for such countries tend to exceed 
those of other countries.  The Chairman exhorted Members to continue 
to advance bilateral efforts in parallel with the discussion of 
Azerbaijan's trade regime. 
 
Legislative Action plan 
 
3.    (U) Deputy Minister Mamed-Khuliev said that Azerbaijan is 
close to full implementation of its legislative action plan.  Some 
measures, including four (unspecified) major acts, have already been 
adapted by parliament.  He said that a Presidential decree on 
additional measures requiring legal action is being prepared, and 
that remaining draft regulations and legislation are moving to an 
inter-governmental review.  He asserted that only one normative act, 
the Law on Tobacco, is still in process of preparation.  He 
expressed gratitude for U.S. technical assistance in the preparation 
of laws.  The United States and European Communities noted a number 
of areas where we look forward to receiving additional legislation, 
for example, the new Customs Code and revised Customs Tariff law. 
It became clear in the ensuing discussion of the factual summary 
that there are a number of areas where legislation still is 
required.  The Chairman encouraged Azerbaijan to continue to update 
its legislative action plan on a rolling basis to show the status of 
documents that are being drafted, considered, and approved. 
 
Examination of the Factual Summary 
 
4. (U) The United States and European Communities posed numerous 
questions throughout all sections of the factual summary and 
indicated that they would submit specific questions in writing, as 
well.  The Azeri delegation's ability to clarify technical questions 
on the spot during the meeting was limited, although attempts by 
Azeri technical experts to provide answers were somewhat more 
constructive than the attempts during the May 2008 Working Party 
meeting.  The written responses to the Questions and Answers that 
Azerbaijan provided prior to the meeting tended to be much clearer 
and forward leaning in terms of showing a willingness to resolve 
specific problems. 
 
5. (U) The role of state-trading enterprises and commercial and 
natural monopolies, and the possibilities for privatization of such 
entities, requires much more documentation and explanation by the 
Azeri side.  Azerbaijan was able to clarify the status of several 
entities that are prohibited from privatization as well as the 
status of various health and pharmaceutical entities.  Similarly, 
regarding price controls, Azeri officials were able to describe the 
administrative process for making decisions on pricing, but further 
detailed questions went unanswered and will require follow-up.  The 
Azeri side did not answer our questions about whether or not IT and 
telecom goods containing commercial grade encrytion are covered by 
licensing procedures, despit follow-up questions from the Chairman. 
 The United States and European Communities urged Azerbaijanto 
elaborate the part of the summary dealing wit the powers of 
executive, legislative and judicil branches of government and to 
clarify hierarch and appeal procedures.  Azerbaijan confirmed that 
the new draft law on customs valuation will addres appeal 
procedures. 
 
6. (U) The United Statesurged Azerbaijan to bind at zero other 
duties an charges (currently applied at zero) and raised cotinuing 
concerns about WTO-inconsistency of motor transport duties. The US 
and EC both raised concerns about export taxes on scrap and said 
that the export ban on scrap metal must be removed.  Azerbaijan did 
not respond directly on these points.  On the VAT exemptions for 
domestic agriculture, Azerbaijan maintained that it currently needs 
this policy for development of the sector, and only indicated that 
it could look at its elimination in the future.  On the status of 
trade remedies legislation, Azerbaijan responded that national 
legislation that is in conformity with WTO requirements is being 
prepared. 
 
7. (U) Regarding the issue of agriculture export subsidies, 
capital-based representative Elmar Mammadov intervened to say that 
the factual summary needs to reflect Azerbaijan's request that as a 
landlocked vulnerable economy, the appropriate provisions of the 
Agreement on Agriculture (Article 9.4) should apply.  On SPS, Canada 
and the United States pressed Azerbaijan to join Codex Alimentarius. 
 The Azeri team responded that appropriate legislation related to 
Codex is being considered at the Minister of Cabinet level, and 
noted that a draft decree on SPS is under development and can be 
shared with delegations.  Generally, Members viewed the SPS section 
of the factual summary as underdeveloped.  The United States called 
for a SPS Action Plan detailing when and how Azerbaijan plans to 
fully comply with the WTO SPS Agreement principles.  On Intellectual 
Property Rights, the United States and the European Communities 
stated that they would submit specific questions regarding the 
Copyright Law, the Law on the Protection of Intellectual Property 
and Combating Piracy as well as questions regarding general 
enforcement efforts.   [Note: This is not an exhaustive list of the 
questions posed by the U.S. delegate about the factual summary, but 
it reflects the areas that were discussed the most among Members]. 
 
Chairman's conclusion 
 
8. (U) Chairman Lewalter concluded that on the basis of questions 
and responses by Azerbaijan, the Secretariat will revise the factual 
summary.  He acknowledged that the Azeri delegation had pressed for 
the Secretariat to move to draft the first Working Party report. 
The Chairman said that while the Secretariat updates the Factual 
Summary, it will assess, in consultation with other Members, whether 
any sections are technically ready for a working party text. 
 
Next Steps from the U.S. Perspective / Prospects for 2009 
 
9. (SBU) Despite good progress on multilateral documentation and a 
more productive Working Party meeting than was experienced in May 
2008, Azerbaijan's lack of progress in market access is troublesome, 
and will have a significant bearing on Azerbaijan's accession 
process in 2009. 
 
10. (SBU) The U.S. bilateral meeting with Azerbaijan in Washington, 
DC on November 18, 2008 confirmed little substantive improvement in 
Azerbaijan's goods and services market access offers.  The greatest 
challenge to further progress on market access is Azerbaijan's 
inability, thus far, to define more narrowly its sensitivities, both 
in goods and services.  In an effort to move the process forward, 
the U.S. has asked for more detailed (goods-specific and 
services-specific) information on Azerbaijan's sensitivities, which 
will enable USTR to consider possible flexibilities.  However, 
Azerbaijan up to this point has listed entire sectors as highly 
sensitive.  This is particularly true of agricultural market access, 
an area in which there has been no progress. 
 
 
11. (SBU) Azerbaijan is now expected to provide revised market 
access offers based on U.S. feedback.  The new Azeri offers, when 
they come, will be crucial.  New offers that again show little or no 
real, substantive progress on opening commercial markets could force 
the United States, other Working Party Members and the WTO 
Secretariat to move resources to other priorities, potentially 
delaying the accession process. End. 
 
 
Allgeier