Uzbek Foreign Trade Minister meets with the EU working group
24/05/2018 11:37
Uzbek Foreign Trade Minister meets with the EU working group
24/05/2018 11:37
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 23 May 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Jamshid Khodjaev met with the working group of the Council of the European Union for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry.
The purpose of the group’s visit was to familiarize with the political and socio-economic reforms carried out in Uzbekistan on the initiative of the Head of State, as well as to discuss the prospects for expanding cooperation between Uzbekistan and the European Union in the trade and economic sphere.
The guests familiarized themselves with the complex reforms implemented under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, aimed at further development and liberalization of the economy of our country.
It should be noted that the European Union is traditionally one of the most important trade and economic partners of Uzbekistan. In 2017, trade with the EU countries reached US$2.5 billion, of which US$420.7 million fell to share of Uzbekistan’s export. Uzbekistan possesses a great potential in the export of textiles, fruit and vegetable, transport, electrical and other products, but there are a number of barriers that impede the growth of exports.
Khodjaev said that one of the steps to improve the terms of trade with the European Union could be provision of unilateral tariff preferences of the EU within the Generalized System of Preferences plus (GSP +) to Uzbekistan.
He added that currently, Uzbekistan enjoys the basic Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), according to which the country can export of 3,000 commodity items to the EU without customs duties and 3,200 commodity items at reduced rates. In the case of granting tariff preferences within GSP +, Uzbekistan will receive duty-free access to more than 6,200 commodity items, Uzbek Minister said.
Also, according to the Minister, Uzbekistan is interested in promoting the practical implementation by the EU countries of the Agreement on bilateral trade in textile products.
The protocol on Amendments to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement entered into force a year ago. But, the customs services of the EU member states still create difficulties in the supply of Uzbek textile products. In this connection, the European side will consider the possibility of rendering assistance in bringing the provisions of the Textile Protocol to the staff of customs services and governments of the Member States of the EU.
A well-coordinated logistics system is also one of the important factors in development of trade relations. To improve it, Khodjaev called on the EU countries to step up work on the direction of the development of the TRACECA transport corridor and eliminate the technological shortcomings of this corridor.
Uzbekistan is also carefully preparing for holding of regular meetings of the Uzbekistan-EU Cooperation Committee and the Subcommittee on Economics, Trade and Investments in Brussels on 6-8 June.
The Uzbek side is convinced that within the framework of the forthcoming events there will be an opportunity to discuss topical issues of both bilateral and regional cooperation.
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