Azerbaijan’s simple average Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff was 8.7%, only lower than Turkiye’s average tariff of 11.1%, Report informs referring to a survey by the World Bank (WB).
“However, Turkiye has concluded preferential trade agreements with more countries than Azerbaijan, including the customs union with the EU, which means that the average effective tariff applied on imports by Turkiye is smaller than the one applied by Azerbaijan.
Among peers, Georgia is the country that has liberalized trade the most among peer countries with an average tariff of 1.4%, 87.7% of tariff lines duty free (compared with only 33% in Azerbaijan), a small proportion of tariff lines with non-ad-valorem duties and duties higher than 15%,” reads the report.
The average customs tariff in Kazakhstan is 6.1%, Malaysia - 5.7%, Russia - 6.6%, Ukraine - 4.5%.
In general, consumers would benefit from a reduction in tariffs, especially in agricultural products, as domestic prices will be reduced, according to the WB.
“Tariff reduction of intermediate products would also lower their cost and benefit downstream producers using them and could facilitate the expansion of manufacturing.
“For instance, one quarter of India’s manufacturing output growth during the 1990s came in products that were not manufactured prior to tariff liberalization. These new goods were a direct consequence of cheaper and new imported intermediates in the economy.
A good start would be to examine the rational of tariffs higher than 15% and analyze the effects of tariff reductions, especially for products with the highest tariffs. As most tariffs are comprised between 10 and 15%, these are the next target for reduction,” the bank noted.
Most of the agricultural products imported to Azerbaijan (71.8%) and non-agricultural products (42.2%) are subject to customs rates in the range of 10-15%.