On March 4-6, 2019, in cooperation with U.S. Customs Border Protection (CBP), the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the U.S. Embassy in Baku, CLDP organized workshops for officials from the Azerbaijan State Customs Committee and the Food Safety Agency on Interagency Coordination in the Implementation of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures.

The workshops featured presentations from the CBP Director of U.S. Agricultural Operations, John Sagle; the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal, Plant, and Health Inspection Service’s Director of Trade Policy for Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, Jay Mitchell; and WTO STDF Economist Simon Padilla, and included discussion of the following priority topics: the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA); information sharing and risk management strategies; good regulatory practice and transparency in regulations development; coordination of inspections and operational, laboratory work on the border; transitable quarantine materials; and phyto e-certificates.  The workshop also provided an opportunity for an exchange between Azerbaijani and Georgian customs officials on cross-border cooperation. 

Azerbaijan is hoping to accede to the World Trade Organization, and these workshops provided a forum for discussion of the requirements of one of the more technical multilateral agreements, the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. 

The workshop is part of a continuing series of workshops for the Azerbaijani Customs Committee to help facilitate economic reforms, trade facilitation, and regional integration