Uzbekistan intends to complete the process of joining the World Trade Organization in 2025
Uzbekistan intends to complete the process of joining the World Trade Organization in 2025
Uzbekistan intends to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) early next year, completing this year the process of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), which it resumed in 2020 after a 15-year hiatus.
After gaining independence in 1991, Uzbekistan began working on WTO accession in 1994, and as part of this, a negotiating group between Uzbekistan and the WTO was established in 1998 to implement the country's membership process in the organization.
While the process of Uzbekistan's accession to the organization, which at the time was often criticized by the West for human rights and democracy, was slow for various reasons, the negotiating group met only three times between 1998 and 2005.
After the third meeting, held in 2005, Uzbekistan suspended the membership process, suspending the meetings of the negotiating group on membership in the organization.
After the election of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as president in December 2016, Uzbekistan, which had embarked on a course of openness and a change in its foreign policy, decided after meetings with WTO officials to resume negotiations on membership in the organization.
Renegotiation in 2020 after 15 years
In this regard, the Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Ulugbek Lapasov, handed the document to the then Director General of the WTO, Roberto Azevedo, with whom he met on July 23, 2019, providing for the resumption of the official negotiation process on his country's accession to the organization.
Then, on July 7, 2020, the fourth meeting of the negotiating group between Uzbekistan and the WTO took place after a 15-year hiatus.
The delegation of Uzbekistan was headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Sardor Umrzakov, and at a meeting held via videoconference in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, the parties agreed to move on to a new stage of negotiations.
The Government of Uzbekistan, which aims to accelerate the accession process by demonstrating the political will to join the WTO, held five more meetings of the negotiating group in 2022-2024. At the last meeting, held in December last year, significant progress was made on the issue of Uzbekistan's membership in the organization.
Since 2023, the Uzbek authorities have begun active negotiations with 31 countries in the negotiating group on the country's membership in the organization. As of the end of 2024, Uzbek officials who have completed negotiations with 22 of the 31 countries, including Turkey, have made significant progress in the country's membership in the organization over the past 2 years.
The Uzbek authorities, who are continuing negotiations with other countries in the negotiating group, aim to complete negotiations with these countries, including the European Union and Russia, this year.
While Uzbek officials have stated in their statements on various occasions that the country's membership in the WTO is one of the priority goals, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said in his speech at the UN General Assembly: "Becoming a full member of the WTO in the near future is one of Uzbekistan's priorities."
Mirziyoyev also noted that Uzbekistan's membership in the WTO is a thoughtful and irreversible path, and the final stage of the process will be completed in 2025.
More than two thousand national standardization rules have been harmonized with the WTO
To date, the Uzbek authorities have harmonized 29 percent of national legislation with WTO rules in order for the country to become a member of the organization.
More than 2,500 of the more than 2,500 standardization rules reviewed by the Uzbek authorities in order to bring national standards in line with the rules of the organization have been harmonized with the WTO standardization rules.
President Mirziyoyev signed a decree on the harmonization of national regulations with WTO rules, and from January 1, 2025, the privileges and priorities granted to national companies operating in the fields of metallurgy, chemistry, energy and telecommunications, as well as the practice of government coverage of exporters' transportation costs, were abolished.
This year, the Uzbek authorities intend to positively complete the process of Uzbekistan's membership and become a member of the organization at the WTO Ministerial Meeting to be held in May 2026.
"Membership in the organization will provide great opportunities for Uzbek companies to open up to the world"
Recalling that the process of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO resumed in 2020 after a 15-year hiatus, economic expert Ulugbek Yakubov said that the efforts and political will of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who was elected president in 2016, played an effective role in this.
Yakubov stated that over the past 5 years, the Uzbek authorities have taken important steps regarding the country's membership process, and that the determination of the Uzbek leadership has proved effective in moving the process forward quickly, and that over the past two years, the Uzbek authorities have positively concluded negotiations with 22 countries, including Uzbekistan's important trading partners such as the United States and China. and Turkey.
Stating that after Uzbekistan joins the organization, domestic manufacturers may face some difficulties at first, Yakubov said: "However, membership in the organization will open up great opportunities for Uzbek companies to enter world markets."
Noting that Uzbekistan's membership in the organization will help eliminate some obstacles in the country's foreign trade and strengthen the country's integration with the countries of the world, Yakubov said: "In general, the country's membership in the organization will create an important infrastructure for further liberalization and liberalization of Uzbekistan's foreign trade."
Source: Vedat Kurt