The Uzbek authorities expect to complete all major negotiations on the country's accession to the World Trade Organization by the end of 2023, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan said, Interfax reports.
The main tasks for 2023 in the framework of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO were determined during a meeting of the interdepartmental commission for work with the Organization, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Jamshid Khodjaev.
In parallel with the negotiation process, it is planned to accelerate work on the harmonization of national legislation with the norms and rules of the WTO, the report says.
During the meeting, the current status of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO was also discussed. Issues of preparation for organizing the sixth meeting of the working group on Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO, scheduled for early next year, were discussed. Bilateral negotiations with the WTO member countries and consultations with the secretariat of the organization are carried out on an ongoing basis for the timely implementation of previously reached agreements.
Uzbekistan received observer status in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the predecessor of the WTO) in June 1994, and in 1998 a working negotiating group on WTO accession was established, whose activities were later suspended. In 2017, the country's authorities resumed work on joining the WTO. In July 2019, the Uzbek side submitted an updated memorandum on the foreign trade regime to the WTO for consideration of an application for membership in the organization.
In July 2020, the authorities of Uzbekistan, the WTO and representatives of a number of countries held the fourth meeting of this group online after an almost 15-year break. At the end of June this year, the fifth meeting was held, where negotiations began between the Uzbek side and the WTO member countries on the conditions for joining the organization. Uzbekistan, when joining the WTO, intends to receive the privileges of a country with a developing economy.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
December 30, 2022