Tajikistan cannot use WTO opportunities due to one’s customs and tariff regulation

Almaty. January 4. Silkroadnews – Due to imperfection of the country’s customs and tariff regulation Tajikistan’s domestic enterprises cannot use the opportunities provided by the entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Tajik Telegraph Agency (TajikTA) reports on Wednesday.

“Cause of imperfection of the country’s customs and tariff regulations the domestic enterprises of Tajikistan cannot take advantages of opportunities that have emerged as a result of the country’s membership in the WTO”, the 2020 medium-term development program of Tajikistan says specifying the problems in the industry sector.

In particular, it is noted that the customs regulations on the import of cotton fabrics and carpets are considerably lower compared with the norms stipulated by the WTO. Goods imported into Tajikistan are recorded with account of their weight, not quantity. This violates the principle of fair competition between the domestic and imported products.

The document’s authors also note a lack of financial resources of the enterprises under conditions of high interest rates on the bank loans. The annual interest rate of bank loans is 22-36%, which is higher compared to the industrial enterprises’ average income level.

According to the document, it has become an obstacle to industry development in the medium and long term perspectives and led to the fact that the number of unprofitable enterprises reached 40% of their total number, while the revenues of the enterprises that earlier used to be profitable lowered considerably.

The document also listed other problems of the industrial sector, among them are depreciation of production equipment and energy consumption, low level of innovations.

The 2020 medium-term development program of Tajikistan offers a variety of options to improve the situation in the industrial sector, strengthen the sector of domestic products processing, production technologies and product competitiveness.