On March 26, the Deputy PM/Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade S. Umurzakov held a meeting with the newly appointed head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Uzbekistan Charlotte Adrian, the ministry said.

The parties discussed the current state of political, trade, economic, investment, financial, technical and cultural and humanitarian cooperation with the EU, the prospects for its expansion, as well as the course of interaction within the framework of the elaboration of the on Expanded Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA), Uzbekistan’s accession into The World Trade Organization (WTO) and to the EU Generalized System of Preferences "GSP +".

The sides also pointed to the need to step up joint work aimed at ensuring a dynamic growth of trade between Uzbekistan and the EU countries, in connection with which the parties agreed on close cooperation to develop effective mechanisms in this direction.

During the dialogue, the head of the EU delegation to Uzbekistan welcomed the progress made in Uzbekistan's efforts to obtain the status of a beneficiary of the EU Generalized System of Preferences "GSP +", which will allow Uzbek producers to export more than 6 thousand types of products to the markets of European countries duty-free. It was announced that a final decision on this issue is expected in the coming days.

The dynamics of the negotiation process on the approval of the draft SRPS was also positively assessed: as of the current moment, 22 rounds of negotiations have been held, the main chapters and sections of the document have been agreed, active work is underway to discuss and resolve the remaining issues. The parties identified further steps to speed up the negotiation process and measures to enhance interaction in this direction.