Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Uzbekistan is ready to go for the complete abolition of existing exemptions from the free trade regime within the CIS. This was stated by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at a meeting of the Council of Heads of States of the Commonwealth.

It shoyld be noted that the meeting of the Council was held in Astana (Kazakhstan) on 14 October.

The head of Uzbekistan said that it is necessary to take effective measures to remove barriers in mutual trade as soon as possible. “We talked a lot about this topic. The time has come for practical actions,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The President of Uzbekistan noted that Uzbekistan has made a fundamental decision to join the Rules for determining the country of origin of goods from 2009. “We expect reciprocal steps from our partners in the Commonwealth,” the head of Uzbekistan said.

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev called on the Presidents of the CIS countries to instruct the relevant ministers to hold consultations within a month with the development of specific measures to stimulate the growth of mutual trade.

“Threats to food and energy security have risen to dangerous levels, provoking social upheaval and instability in many regions. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth space is no exception. All these negative trends hinder our common efforts to ensure sustainable development,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

According to the head of Uzbekistan, only together can problems of this scale be solved. He said that the CIS countries should use the CIS platform as efficiently as possible - to deeply analyze the existing potential of our organization and use all the possibilities of multifaceted cooperation.

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that food security remains a key area of interaction between the CIS countries. He stressed that it is important to create favorable conditions for unhindered food supplies in the CIS in order to prevent artificial price increases and curb inflation.

Uzbekistan is ready to provide partners with fruits and vegetables, including early varieties, with the conclusion of long-term futures contracts. In turn, the country is interested in guaranteed supplies of grain, oilseeds and fodder crops, the head of Uzbekistan said.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that the CIS countries should jointly develop new logistics corridors.

“We are talking about the projects for the construction of railways Termez - Mazar-i-Sharif - Kabul - Peshawar, as well as China - Kyrgyzstan - Uzbekistan. These roads will organically complement the existing routes, contributing to the transformation of the CIS into a key link in transcontinental transport, reducing their time and cost by several times,” the President said.

“I am convinced that the versatility of transnational corridors will open up vast new markets for the products of the Commonwealth states,” Mirziyev said.