DUSHANBE, October 8, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- The last two-day meeting on Tajikistan’s admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has opened in Geneva today.

A Tajik delegation participating in the meeting is led by Sharif Rahimzoda, Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

The delegation members include representatives of the ministries of economic development and trade and agriculture.

An official source at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) says the meeting is considering the main issues regarding Tajikistan’s admission to the World Trade Organization.  “It is necessary to determine what has been done and what remains to do,” said the source.  “Tajikistan will have to bring its legislation into compliances with WTO’s rules and requirements.”

“The accession to the World Trade Organization is a long process and we are gradually nearing the goal,” the source added.

We will recall that the Working Party on the accession of Tajikistan was established by the General Council on 18 July 2001.  Multilateral work is proceeding on the basis of a draft Working Party Report.  Bilateral market access negotiations have been conducted on the basis of revised offers in goods and services.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. The organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries; it provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements, and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants'' adherence to WTO agreements which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments.