BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 9. Uzbekistan and USA are finalizing market access negotiations as part of Uzbekistan's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), TurkicWorld reports.
This was reported by the Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan for WTO Affairs Azizbek Urunov on his LinkedIn page. Urunov noted that the week of negotiations in Washington with representatives of the Office of the US Trade Representative was very productive.
"Market access negotiations with the United States are entering their final phase. Overall, the meetings were successful both on issues of market access and on measures to support agriculture.", - he emphasized.
In addition, Azizbek Urunov reported on his meeting with Mona Haddad, the World Bank's Director for Global Trade. The parties discussed the organization of a round table dedicated to reforms in Uzbekistan in the context of its accession to the WTO, which will be held as part of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in 2024.
Urunov also expressed gratitude to Ola Lucin, Justin H. Hoffmann, Neil Beck, Brendan Lynch, Ambassador Katherine Tai of the Office of the US Trade Representative and Mona Haddad for their active support in the process of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO.
The working group on Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO was established in 1994. The process was formally resumed at the fourth meeting of the working group in July 2020. Four more meetings of the working group took place in 2022-2024.
Uzbekistan plans to join the WTO before the 14th ministerial conference, which will be held in Cameroon in 2026, said Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev, who led the country's delegation at the eighth meeting of the working group on Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO.