ECONOMY
IMPACT OF AZERBAIJAN’S WTO MEMBERSHIP ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SECTOR DISCUSSED AT “ROUNDTABLE” MEETING
The Copyright Agency of the Azerbaijan Republic (CAAR) and Modern Economic-Trade Relations Research Center held a “roundtable” meeting entitled “Azerbaijan’s WTO membership: problems of intellectual property sector and ways of solving them” on July 26 at the Baku Business Center.
The meeting was attended by representatives of government agencies, NGOs and members of the secretariat and working group for WTO and businesspersons.
According to chairman of the Modern Economic-Trade Relations Research Center Rashad Aliyev, the meeting was held within the framework of the US embassy-funded “Democracy Commission Small Grants Program” and grant project for supporting Azerbaijan WTO accession process. The main objective of the meeting was to discuss Azerbaijan’s WTO accession process and the country’s prospects for the intellectual property sector
Then, meeting participants were informed about the World Trade Organization.
Chief of the CAAR’s legal department Khudayet Hasanli reported on “WTO and Azerbaijan: development of intellectual property sector”, saying the issue of protection of the intellectual property like all domestic products must be raised globally. He highlighted a fight against piracy and issuing of licenses. According to him, the most serious shortcoming is audio, video, software and book piracy. He found a need to set up special departments for protection of the intellectual property in all ministries and establish specialized courts to this effect.
In his report “Present situation of negotiations with WTO”, first secretary for WTO affairs of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan Shovgi Mehdizadeh said that government of Azerbaijan sticks with the national interests and those of entrepreneurs and consumers. He pointed out that WTO membership would help increase the GDP, raise the competitiveness and bring the prices down.
According to USAID senior advisor for WTO affairs, president of the Economic Integration Forum Farhad Yakkin Farhad, the fact that Azerbaijan’s WTO membership issue became a national priority gives grounds to say that Azerbaijan will join the WTO in 1.5-2 years.