Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Uzbekistan plans to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) before the 14th ministerial conference, which will be held in Cameroon in 2026. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khojaev, who headed the country’s delegation at the eighth meeting of the working group on Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO.

In his statement, Khojaev called on delegates to “invest and support” the accession process, stressing that their “cooperation, experience and assistance” are essential to the successful conclusion of the negotiations.

The Chairman of the Working Group, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea Yoon Sung-dok, noted the acceleration of the pace of negotiations.

“Today we meet just six months after our seventh meeting. The shortening of the interval between Working Group meetings is a clear indication that our work is moving at a faster pace. I believe this is the result of institutional changes carried out last year to strengthen governance and coordination of the accession process,” he noted.

Uzbekistan’s accession process was officially resumed at the fourth meeting of the Working Group in July 2020, followed by three more meetings in June 2022, March 2023 and November 2023.

Ambassador Yun highly appreciated Uzbekistan’s progress in the negotiations and noted that the accession process had entered a new stage. On May 23, an informal meeting was held on issues of supporting agriculture in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has signed four bilateral agreements with the Dominican Republic, Israel, Japan and Uruguay. After the seventh meeting of the Working Group, bilateral negotiations were intensified with 33 members.

The Working Group discussed various aspects of Uzbekistan’s foreign trade regime based on elements of the Working Group’s draft report and other supporting documentation, calling on Uzbekistan to accept additional commitments. Members emphasized the importance of Uzbekistan’s entry into the multilateral trading system and its foreign trade policy. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the International Trade Center and the World Bank.

Deputy Minister of Justice Alisher Karimov noted that since the seventh meeting, Uzbekistan has adopted several pieces of legislation to bring its trade regime into line with WTO rules in various areas, including government fees for company registration, intellectual property rights, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, customs assessment. Uzbekistan also circulated the revised Legislative Action Plan and presented draft and adopted legislation to members for consideration.

In his assessment of the meeting, Ambassador Yun noted that “the tone of interaction on both the bilateral and multilateral fronts has improved significantly,” and thanked Uzbekistan and members for a very productive meeting.

In the future, Uzbekistan and members were invited to develop the achieved achievements and conclude agreements on market access. Members were invited to submit questions, comments and suggestions on the draft commitments by 21 June 2024. Uzbekistan was also asked to provide supporting documents.

The specific date for the next meeting of the Working Group will be announced after all necessary materials for negotiations have been submitted.