Uzbekistan seeks to complete its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2026, the chief negotiator Azizbek Urunov, the President's WTO Envoy announced following the 13th meeting of the Working Party on Uzbekistan's accession, held on July 27-28.
Uzbekistan's delegation included 30 senior officials, among them Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance Akhadbek Khaidarov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Akmal Kosimov, and Deputy Minister of Justice Makhmud Istamov. Representatives of several other ministries and agencies joined the session remotely from Tashkent.
Urunov affirmed "the government's full commitment to intensive and constructive work with WTO members." He said negotiations had moved into a more advanced phase since the previous Working Party meeting in March.
One sign of this progress, he noted, is a drop in the number of questions raised by WTO member states — an indication that Uzbekistan is steadily resolving the concerns they have flagged.
"Sustaining this momentum is especially important given Uzbekistan's goal of completing accession in 2026," Urunov said, according to a WTO press statement.
190 Legal Acts Amended Since March
According to Uzbek officials, 190 laws and regulations have been brought into line with WTO rules since March.
Much of this legislative work concerns sanitary and phytosanitary requirements and food safety standards; notably, the country has created a unified Food Safety Committee. Uzbekistan has also revised draft legislation on anti-dumping, countervailing, and safeguard measures.
Working Party Chair Ambassador Sung-yo Choi of South Korea said 31 of the 34 bilateral market-access agreements required have now been submitted to the WTO Secretariat, the most recent being an agreement with India. She urged countries still in talks with Uzbekistan to resolve outstanding issues as soon as possible, saying the bilateral track of the accession process is "very close to completion."
WTO Members Push for Faster Reforms
WTO member states welcomed Uzbekistan's progress but noted that passage of certain laws is lagging behind schedule. They praised ongoing reforms, including the privatization of state-owned enterprises and efforts to build a more transparent and predictable business environment.
During the meeting, member states raised questions on currency regulation and payments, import rules, trade facilitation, investment and competition policy, and technical barriers to trade. Uzbekistan was also urged to continue reforming state enterprises and its system of agricultural support. Some participants suggested that after joining, Uzbekistan consider participating in WTO plurilateral initiatives, which involve only a subset of the organization's members.
WTO Deputy Director-General Zhang Xiangchen, speaking on behalf of the Director-General, said the short gap between the March and July meetings reflected both sides' determination to speed up negotiations. "WTO accession can help economies build resilience by locking in comprehensive reforms," he said. "It can also strengthen the WTO itself by modernizing its rules and expanding market access."
The Working Party chair said that, despite the work still ahead, completing accession remains achievable if Uzbekistan and WTO members resolve the remaining issues in a timely manner.
Urunov called on negotiators to focus on finalizing the wording of outstanding commitments and finding balanced solutions. He said the next step is to lock in the progress made so far in agreed documents, resolve remaining disagreements, and bring the accession process to a close.
The next Working Party meeting is expected to take place in late autumn, once all necessary documents have been circulated.
Uzbekistan applied to join the WTO in 1994. Active negotiations on membership terms resumed in 2020. Accession had originally been targeted for completion by the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference in March 2026, but that deadline was missed; Urunov has said some countries have been slow to review documents, and late last year warned of the risk of "unintentional delays" in the process.
In May, a meeting with the president reaffirmed that Uzbekistan still intends to join the WTO in 2026. As of the start of this year, Uzbekistan had concluded bilateral negotiations with 33 of the WTO's 34 relevant members.
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