Uzbekistan Reaffirms Plan to Join WTO in 2026

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Uzbekistan has reaffirmed its commitment to complete its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2026. The announcement was made during the 13th meeting of the WTO Working Party on the country's accession.

According to the WTO, the Uzbek delegation included around 30 senior government officials, among them the President's Special Representative for WTO Affairs and Chief Negotiator Azizbek Urunov, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance Akhadbek Khaydarov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Akmal Kosimov, and Deputy Minister of Justice Makhmud Istamov. Representatives of several ministries and government agencies also joined the meeting online from Tashkent.

Urunov reaffirmed the government's commitment to active engagement with WTO members. He said the accession process had entered a more advanced stage since the previous Working Party meeting, as reflected by the declining number of questions from WTO members following the systematic resolution of outstanding issues.

The chief negotiator also said that since March this year, Uzbekistan has aligned 190 legal and regulatory acts with WTO requirements, primarily in the areas of sanitary and phytosanitary measures and food safety. The country has established a unified Food Safety Committee and updated draft legislation on anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures.

The Chair of the Working Party, Ambassador Song Yeocheol of the Republic of Korea, said 31 bilateral market access agreements, including a recently concluded agreement with India, had been submitted to the WTO Secretariat. She noted that the bilateral phase of the negotiations was nearing completion and urged the remaining participants to conclude their consultations as soon as possible.

WTO members welcomed Uzbekistan's progress but noted that the adoption of some legislative acts had been slower than expected. At the same time, they praised the country's ongoing reforms, including the privatization of state-owned enterprises and measures aimed at creating a more transparent and predictable business environment.

The meeting also covered currency regulation, import policy, trade facilitation, investment and competition policy, technical barriers to trade, and further reforms of the public sector and agricultural support system. Several WTO members also recommended that Uzbekistan join selected WTO plurilateral initiatives after accession.

Speaking on behalf of WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang thanked Uzbekistan and WTO members for their active participation in the negotiations. He said the short interval between Working Party meetings reflected the parties' determination to accelerate the accession process.

Concluding the meeting, the Chair of the Working Party said completing the negotiations remained an achievable objective provided that the remaining issues were resolved in a timely manner. Urunov, in turn, called on participants to focus on agreeing the outstanding commitments and successfully concluding Uzbekistan's accession process.

Uzbekistan applied to join the World Trade Organization in 1994 and has been conducting the active phase of accession negotiations with WTO members since 2020.