Uzbekistan has practically completed negotiations on the country's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) with three countries. This was announced at a press conference on March 31 by the Deputy Head of the Department for Cooperation with the WTO of the Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade Amirbek Mukhamedov.
According to the official, the working group on Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO includes 47 member states in total.
“Negotiations are currently underway with 31 countries. We are about to finish the negotiations with three more countries. This is Georgia, we are now at the final stage with Mongolia and Turkey,” Mukhamedov said.
In early April, at the 9th meeting of the Uzbek-Georgian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation in Tashkent, a protocol was signed on the completion of bilateral negotiations on access to the market for goods and services between Georgia and Uzbekistan as part of accession to the WTO becoming the first country to complete negotiations with Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan launched an initiative to join the WTO in 1994 but suspended the process in 2005. In 2020, work on joining the organization was resumed at the first meeting. In mid-March of this year, the sixth meeting of the working group on Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO took place in Geneva.
Amirbek Mukhamedov noted that it was still early to name the exact date of Uzbekistan's accession to WTO since this process is complex and requires coordination with each member of the organization. For example, it took 13 years for Kazakhstan and 10 years for Russia to be accepted.
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