The 5th meeting of the Working Group on Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO opens in Geneva

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – On 21 June 2022, Geneva hosted the 5th meeting of the Working Group on Uzbekistan’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The event was attended by over 60 delegations of WTO member countries, as well as representatives of international organizations and foreign experts.

All 25 Member States that spoke, including the USA, EU, Great Britain, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and others unanimously declared their full support for Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO, emphasizing that the republic’s accession to the Organization will allow the country to fully integrate into the multilateral trading system , will give impetus to the further development of trade and economic relations with all member countries, and will activate the expansion of the legal system of international economic relations at the global level.

The participants of the event highly appreciated the active, pragmatic and deeply thought-out policy of liberalization of the economy and the foreign trade regime of Uzbekistan, carried out under the leadership of the Head of State in the framework of the Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026, which is widely recognized and supported in the international community.

A positive assessment was given to the results of the activities carried out by the Interdepartmental Commission for Work with the WTO as part of the process of Uzbekistan’s accession to the Organization, including in the spectrum of preparing an expanded package of documents and conducting bilateral negotiations on access to the country’s market.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting of the Working Group, the Chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission for Work with the WTO - Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov noted the importance and absolute priority of Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO as one of the main directions of large-scale reforms in the country’s foreign economic policy.

The head of the delegation of Uzbekistan confirmed the firm determination of the republic in actively promoting the process of Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO and completing bilateral negotiations with all interested member states of the Organization in the near future.

According to the agenda, the Working Group began a detailed discussion of the submitted documents on the foreign trade regime of Uzbekistan, including the Factual Summary, answers to questions from member countries, information on economic policy, ongoing measures to privatize state assets, customs and tariff policy, state support for agriculture , industrial subsidies.

The delegation of Uzbekistan is also holding a series of bilateral negotiations in Geneva on market access for goods and services with the US, EU, Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia and other key WTO member states, members of the Working Group on Uzbekistan’s accession to the Organization.