Chairman of the State Bank for Foreign Economic Activity ща Turkmenistan Rakhimberdy Dzhepbarov held a series of meetings with representatives of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry reported on March 14.

The talks were also attended by representatives of the International Trade Centre and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe who expressed their readiness to assist Turkmenistan in economic reforms and joining the WTO.

The information says that it is important to establish internal institutional mechanisms to negotiate, study the implications of WTO accession, and bring national legislation into conformity with the organization's regulations.

"The Turkmen side stressed the firm commitment of the Turkmen government to become a full member of the WTO."

It should be noted that Turkmenistan is the last former Soviet country to initiate WTO accession talks. Official Ashgabat received WTO observer status in July 2020 and became an "accession country" in February 2022.

Turkmenistan will need to liberalize trade by eliminating barriers such as import tariffs, quotas, export subsidies, dumping practices, and other rules that limit the free flow of trade.

 Turkmenistan is now drafting a Memorandum on the foreign trade regime, the surrender of which is one of the conditions for WTO accession.

 Credits: Eziz Boyarov, Ashgabat