Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

The Chamber of Commerce of the United States is considering the issue cutting privileges given to Georgia.

Since 2001, Georgia enjoys trade preferences stipulating the import of Georgian products at zero rates to the United States.

"The American side has received a petition from the Federation of Labor, criticizing the labor legislation of Georgia and calling on the Chamber of Commerce to deprive the country of preferential permission for the import of goods to the United States at zero rates," Deputy Justice Minister Alexander Baramidze, who is on visit to Washington, told reporters on Thursday.

The American Federation of Labor highlights the incompatibility of the labor legislation of Georgia with the international standards.

Baramidze admitted that the existing labor code of Georgia causes dissatisfaction amongst many international organizations and a new draft code has already been developed and will be presented to the American side on Thursday.

"I think that no serious objections will be made to the new code," Baramidze said.

The U.S. established diplomatic relations with Georgia in 1992 following Georgia's 1991 independence from the Soviet Union. The US assistance in various spheres have been increased since the Rose Revolution in November 2003, when the people of Georgia manifested to the international community its true desire to build a state based on the principles of democracy, market economy and the rule-of-law.

Furthermore, the US administration has designed a Millennium Challenge Program aimed at investing American capital in the Georgian economy. Georgia was one of the first countries to sign a compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation over five-year period in September 2005. This compact totaling $295 million was focused on different projects for rehabilitating regional infrastructure and promoting private sector development. The key goal of the Program was to reduce poverty through economic growth.

Following the 2008 war with Russia, $1 billion assistance was pledged by the US Government to Georgia for the economic recovery to finance actions aimed at humanitarian assistance to the displaced persons, promoting democratic reforms and rule of law, stimulating economic growth and rebuilding the infrastructure.