Uzbekistan continues to actively pursue WTO accession

On June 21, 2022, the Working Party (WP) on the accession of Uzbekistan to the WTO met in Geneva.

The WP reviewed the state of play in the bilateral market access negotiations. Uzbekistan informed the WP that it had held bilateral engagements with 35 members. Additional bilateral meetings were scheduled to take place last week in Geneva.

On the multilateral front, the WP completed the review of all sections of the Factual Summary of Points Raised prepared by the WTO Secretariat, along with certain key supporting documents such as the questionnaire on state trading and a draft subsidies notification. The WP also reviewed Uzbekistan's Agricultural Supporting Tables.

On the legislative front, the WP reviewed Uzbekistan's revised Legislative Action Plan as well as 39 pieces of legislation which have been made available to members.

Next steps

On the bilateral front, the WP chair invited Uzbekistan to share its revised market access offers on goods together with currently applied tariff rates.

On the multilateral front, members are likely to submit questions to Uzbekistan. In addition, Uzbekistan was asked to submit a revised questionnaire on state trading, and updated Agriculture Supporting Tables.

Finally, Uzbekistan was invited to revise its Legislative Action Plan and to provide copies of WTO-related legislation and enforcement mechanisms, including in draft form, especially in the areas requested by members.

Mr Sardor Umurzakov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan, stated:

“…we have adopted a New Uzbekistan Development Strategy covering period from 2022 to 2026. It is notable that one of the main priorities of our new Strategy is accession of Uzbekistan to WTO. …

… a detailed Road Map for 2022 was adopted, which includes organization of a number of Working Group meetings and regular bilateral negotiations with more than forty Member States. We want to take practical steps towards our accession.”