Overview
In February 2017, the Azerbaijani government established the Food Safety Agency, taking over many of the duties previously executed by the State Veterinary Service, including ensuring basic health standards on imported food and animal products. Goods subject to inspection include plants, certain foodstuffs, wood, and leather.
The President established the Azerbaijan Standardization Institute in 2017. In April 2018, the President signed a decree, creating the State Antimonopoly and Consumption Market Supervisory Agency and abolishing the State Committee on Standardization, Metrology, and Patents. Over the course of several years, Azerbaijan has moved from defunct Soviet standards to developing new Azerbaijani standards and adopting some international standards, though this process is not yet complete. The Government of Azerbaijan is also moving to adopt many European Union standards in agricultural products.
Standards
The Azerbaijan Standardization Institute works closely with the International Organization for Standardization, the International Electrotechnical Commission, the European Standardization Committee, and other international and regional standardization organizations and national standardization bodies of foreign countries.
Testing, Inspection, and Certification
Azerbaijan subscribes to the Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol’s treaties on International Registration of Marks, the 1999 Geneva Act of The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, and the Patent Cooperation Treaty. These treaties allow individuals and legal entities to register industrial property outside of Azerbaijani territories and establish protections in the territories of several or all member states. Based on Azerbaijan’s adoption of the Madrid Agreement’s protocol in October 2006, individuals and legal entities in Azerbaijan can file an international application under the Madrid System for international registration of marks.
Publication of Technical Regulations
Following the abolishment of the State Committee on Standardization, Metrology, and Patents, the State Agency for the Control of Antimonopoly and Consumption Market assumed authority on technical regulation, standardization, metrology, conformity assessment, accreditation, and quality management in Azerbaijan. The “Law on Technical Regulation,” which establishes the framework for technical regulations in Azerbaijan, was issued in September 2019 and was enforced six months after publication.
Use ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.
The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995 to present. ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts. Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and to follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest.
Notify U.S., operated and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2003 to distribute and provide access to notifications (and associated draft texts) made under the WTO TBT Agreement for US stakeholders, has reached its end of life. Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) Enquiry Point. National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat. All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for further information. This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.
Contact Information
Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required, under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement), to follow the WTO proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures that could affect trade. Notify U.S. (www.nist.gov/notifyus) is a free, web-based e-mail registration service that captures key information on draft regulations and conformity assessment procedures and makes it available for review and comment. Users receive customized e-mail alerts / notifications and can request full texts of regulations from selected countries and industry sector(s) of interest. This service and its associated web site are managed and operated by the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
For more on Azerbaijan-specific trade standards, contact:
Standardization Institute: https://azstand.gov.az/az /
State Agency for the Control of Antimonopoly and Consumption Market:
https://competition.gov.az/en