Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov today February 3 made remarks at the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in a wider format (i.e. including observer-countries) in Almaty in Kazakhstan.
PM Aripov said that the country had completed preparatory work to simplify mutual access to the markets of Uzbekistan and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries.
“We have fully completed the preparatory work to ensure the harmonization of national technical regulations with the EAEU standards. We consider the entering into an agreement on mutual recognition of certification results to be a logical outcome on the way to simplify the mutual access of goods to our markets. We count on the support of all countries of the association for the adoption of this joint document with the assistance of the EAEU,” said Abdulla Aripov.
He underscored that Uzbekistan’s observer-status should help increase trade flows and liberalize trade ties with the EAEU states. According to him, Uzbekistan's trade with the EAEU countries increased by more than a third, to $17 billion.
Abdulla Aripov added that, in accordance with the current free trade regime, Uzbekistan does not apply trade restrictions to the EAEU countries.
“We are in favor of the joint development of specific measures to lift tariff and non-tariff barriers, since the regulation of goods moved between our countries should be of a parity nature,” the head of government added.
The Prime Minister also stated that Uzbekistan intends to continue industrial cooperation with the EAEU countries.
“Uzbekistan is firmly set to continue efforts with the EAEU states on the creation of new joint ventures and building targeted cooperation between our enterprises,” said Abdulla Aripov.
He noted that today Uzbekistan was successfully implementing a number of promising projects with the EAEU countries, expanding industrial partnership. In particular, in 2022, more than 1,000 joint ventures were created with the countries of the union, and their total number exceeded 5,000.
He also voiced the proposal to the EAEU countries to jointly develop new transport corridors.
“We are ready to jointly develop and take effective measures to develop efficient transport corridors to enter the markets of South Asia, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region,” said Abdulla Aripov.
He noted that the EAEU countries fully provide their domestic markets with basic types of food, as well as the necessary mineral fertilizers.
“Meanwhile, in spite of the existing significant agro-industrial potential, our cooperation still does not allow us to quickly respond to the growing threats to food security,” said Abdulla Aripov.
At the end of his remarks, the head of the government of Uzbekistan invited the EAEU countries to the international conference on food security in Samarkand in September, which is planned to be held jointly with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
