Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 13 November this year, in the format of a video conference, negotiations were held between the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov with the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis.

During the conversation, topical issues of bilateral partnership in the trade, economic, financial, technical, cultural and humanitarian spheres, as well as the course of interaction within the framework of the agreed draft Agreement on Expanded Partnership and Cooperation (EPC), the entry of the Republic of Uzbekistan into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and joining the General System of Preferences of the European Union "GSP +" were discussed.

During the dialogue, the parties noted with satisfaction more than 50 percent growth in trade between Uzbekistan and the countries of the European Union, achieved over the past 3 years, and voiced their readiness to jointly develop effective mechanisms and implement initiatives to increase the indicators of mutual trade, bringing its volume to US$10 billion in the short term.

In this context, the need to accelerate the process of Uzbekistan’s accession to the World Trade Organization was emphasized. The Uzbek side expressed gratitude to the EU for supporting the efforts undertaken by Uzbekistan to join the World Trade Organization, in particular, for financing and implementing a technical assistance project. The European side, in turn, expressed its readiness to continue providing practical support in multilateral and bilateral negotiations on Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO.

Dombrovskis also expressed the EU’s commitment to providing assistance to Uzbekistan in obtaining the status of a beneficiary country "GSP +", which will allow Uzbek producers of over 6,000 types of goods to export their products duty-free to the markets of the EU countries.

Significant progress was noted in the process of agreeing the draft EPC - as of the current moment, 18 rounds of negotiations have been held, a number of chapters and sections of the document have been agreed, active work is underway to discuss and resolve existing issues. Further steps were outlined to speed up the negotiation process and measures to intensify bilateral cooperation in this direction.

In addition, an agreement was reached on expanding cultural and humanitarian cooperation, in particular, in the field of education - the prospects for interaction within the framework of the European educational programs "Erasmus" and "Horizon Europe" were discussed.

As a result of the negotiations, the parties agreed to continue joint activities to promote the agreements reached and to develop new directions for a multifaceted partnership between Uzbekistan and the European Union.