Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Ambassador of Uzbekistan Javlon Vakhabov held talks with former US Trade Representative (USTR) Assistant for South and Central Asia Mark Linscott, appointed as a consultant on Uzbekistan’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Director of the Office for Central Asia of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Jason Gilpin, Dunyo news agency reported.

During the meeting, it was emphasized that Uzbekistan is committed to continuing the implementation of trade liberalization measures, modernizing the system of reforming foreign trade based on the principles and conditions of the WTO agreements, encouraging foreign investment, as well as introducing the best world practices in order to ensure sustainable economic growth. For Uzbekistan, accession to the WTO is a priority task aimed at further integration of the country into the multilateral trading system.

For his part, Mark Linscott thanked for the opportunity given to him to promote Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO and stressed that he was very interested in helping the republic in this process. He and his team develop recommendations for reforming the market economy, industrial subsidies and state-owned trade enterprises, and provide practical advice to Uzbekistani agencies on access to foreign markets for goods and services.

The US side, having informed about the work done and upcoming plans in the framework of the implementation of technical assistance projects, proposed a number of measures and mechanisms to further increase the effectiveness of assistance to Uzbekistan in the process of joining the WTO.

As a result of the meeting, an agreement was reached on coordinating efforts in preparing the necessary documents for WTO accession, as well as intensifying joint work to accelerate the advancement of issues related to the negotiation process.