Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — A World Trade Organization delegation led by Sung-yo Choi, chair of the Working Party on Uzbekistan’s accession and Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, visited Tashkent from 1 to 3 November, the WTO reported.
This was the working party chair’s first visit to Uzbekistan since the country officially resumed its accession process in July 2020. The WTO considers the negotiations to have entered a critical phase. The visit was intended to support Uzbekistan’s preparations for membership.
Significant progress has been made in the negotiations in recent years, including at the 13th Working Party meeting on 27–28 July.
Sung-yo Choi met Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khojaev and Uzbekistan’s chief WTO accession negotiator Azizbek Urunov, who also serves as the President’s Special Representative.
Members of the Interagency Negotiating Group took part in the talks. The sides reviewed progress and discussed priorities for the remaining stages.
The main topics included bilateral market access negotiations and draft paragraphs setting out commitments in the draft Working Party Report.
Bilateral market access negotiations with most interested WTO members have already been completed. The remaining agreements now need to be finalised, and Uzbekistan’s draft goods and services schedules of commitments prepared for technical verification.
On the multilateral track, Uzbekistan needs to continue consultations with WTO members to narrow differences over outstanding commitments and prepare for the next Working Party meeting. The timing of that meeting will depend on progress in the accession process.
During a meeting with First Deputy Minister of Justice Mahmoud Istamov, the ambassador discussed progress on the remaining legislative work. With Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance Ahadbek Khaydarov, she discussed the next steps in negotiations on agricultural support. Participants agreed that legislative reforms and agreement on agricultural support were necessary to complete the accession package.
At a press conference on 3 November, the working party chair acknowledged Uzbekistan’s progress and said it enjoyed broad support among WTO members. However, she noted that substantial work remained.
“The main task now is to turn the existing broad support into concrete agreements on the outstanding issues,” Sung-yo Choi said.
She also stressed the importance of bringing progress across different areas together into a single package acceptable to WTO members.
At the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, which participates in the WTO Chairs Programme, the ambassador met the university’s rector, Sadik Safaev, First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis. He assured her that parliament firmly supported WTO accession and pledged to accelerate work on the necessary legislation.
A round-table discussion with students followed the meeting at the university. Participants discussed the implications of WTO membership for Uzbekistan’s trade and economy, as well as how the academic community could contribute to the accession process.
The working party chair also discussed Uzbekistan’s economic reforms and support for its WTO accession with representatives of the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Uzbekistan applied for WTO membership in December 1994.
Accession negotiations resumed in July 2020 after a 15-year hiatus.
