Earlier, a story surfaced on some media outlets that an official of the Uzbek Minostry of Invetsment had offered Russian businesses to share access to the EU GSP + system of preferences for duty-free delivery of goods to the EU.

According to RIA Novosti, this was announced on Thursday on the sidelines of the first international investment forum in Tashkent by the director of the agency for attracting direct investments under the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade, Ulugbek Kasimkhodzhaev.

“There are sanctioned companies in Russia, but there is a huge number of SMES that are not under sanctions. And so we are offering them to take advantage of the GSP +,” Kasymkhodzhaev specified.

Using the preferences system, the businesses of the two countries could develop industrial cooperation and export joint products to the EU markets, he said.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade, the EU's expanded system of preferences GSP+ is primarily focused on facilitating increased export supplies to the markets of the EU countries.

“Ulugbek Kasimkhodzhaev, who recently started working in the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade, commenting on the question of a RIA Novosti journalist, was not fully aware of the practical aspects and mechanisms for applying benefits and preferences of the GSP + system,” the press service said.

The Ministry emphasized that he is not sufficiently authorized in this area, and it is not part of his area of ​​​​responsibility, and is not authorized to make statements on this matter.

“In this regard, we declare that the comment of Ulugbek Kasimkhodzhaev is not the official position of the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade on this matter,” the Ministry of Investments concluded.

In April 2021, Uzbekistan received the status of a beneficiary of the general system of preferences GSP+.

Earlier, the USA administration said it could impose sanctions on the countries who help Russians to evade the sanctions.