Badriddin Obidov, Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade/Chair of the Negotiation Group on accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) landed in Geneva to attend the Trade Strategies Forum organized by the UNCTAD/WTO World Trade Center (WTC) and to hold a series of negotiations with WTO member-states for Uzbekistan's membership in the organization.

During the visit, negotiations were held with the chiefs and experts of the diplomatic missions of 14 countries such as the USA, the European Union, China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Singapore regarding Uzbekistan's membership in the WTO. Meetings were held with WTO Deputy Director-General Jean-Marie Paugam and Mike Oshikawa, Head of the Accession Department of the Organization's Secretariat.

During the negotiations, the parties discussed the preparations for organizing the 6th meeting of the working group on WTO membership of Uzbekistan, and practical measures to accelerate this process.

Uzbekistan will provide the member countries of the organization with all the necessary new documents for organizing the 6th meeting of the working group, written answers to the questions of the interested countries, a plan of measures aimed at bringing national legislation into line with the WTO rules, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, customs value presented updated documents on valuation, intellectual property, licensing of import of goods and other issues.

At the end of the negotiations, an agreement was reached on further expediting the process of Uzbekistan’s joining the WTO, holding the 6th meeting of the working group in early 2023 in accordance with the organization's schedule of events.

On December 8-9, the Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade B. Obidov attended the Forum of Foreign Trade Strategies.

During the discussions, the delegation of Uzbekistan gave detailed information about the results of the reforms implemented in the field of foreign trade liberalization in the country, the adopted regulatory and legal documents and administrative measures, the development of the draft national strategy for electronic commerce.