According to the previous State Program entitled  “Supporting the active entrepreneurship, innovative ideas and technologies” the Government of Uzbekistan activated the negotiation process to access WTO, which signaled that Uzbekistan sees WTO accession as one of the priorities for the Government.

On July 07 2020 Geneva and Tashkent hosted the 4th meeting of the Working Parties on Uzbekistan’s accession to World Trade Organization – 15 years after its last formal meeting.

The working parties meeting was organized on a special online platform in a “hybrid format”, in which delegations of participating states participated directly in the Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, and other participants, including experts from the capitals of various states, through video conferencing.

At the meeting of the Working Party, Mr Sardor Umurzakov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan, underscored the government's commitment to the accession process. He emphasized that accession to the WTO is “an absolute priority” for the government and an integral part of the ongoing reforms aimed at further integration of Uzbekistan into the world economic community and the multilateral trading system.

The members of the working party reviewed the foreign trade regime of Uzbekistan on the basis of the updated Memorandum on the Foreign Trade Regime (MFTR) and provided comments and questions on a wide range of issues pertaining to the country’s foreign trade regulation.

The working parties held detailed discussions of the checklists of Illustrative Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Issues, Illustrative Issues on the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), on implementation and administration of the Customs Valuation Agreement, Information on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) as well as the Legislative Action Plan.

The parties agreed to start bilateral market access negotiations on the basis of the latest market access offers on goods and services via appropriate virtual platforms during 20 to 31 July.

The meeting was organized with technical assistance of the UNDP Uzbekistan.

The UNDP trade development activities are carried out in accordance with the Action Strategy for Uzbekistan Development 2017-2021, with focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN Member States.

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The ‘Aid for Trade in Uzbekistan’ project is aimed to support Uzbekistan’s WTO accession process, developing trade, building productive and export capacities for niche products in employment-rich and potentially green sectors to contribute to more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable growth patterns.

The project is funded by the Government of the Russian Federation and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme in partnership with the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan.