The fifth meeting of the working group on Uzbekistan's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in Geneva on June 21, the press service of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade (MIFT) reported.

The event was attended by over 60 delegations of WTO member countries, as well as representatives of international organizations and foreign experts.

All 25 member states that addressed the meeting, including the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and others, unanimously declared their full support for Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO.

Representatives of the countries stressed that the accession of Uzbekistan to the organization will allow the country to fully integrate into the multilateral trading system, give impetus to the development of trade and economic relations with all member countries, and activate the expansion of the legal system of international economic relations at the global level, the MIFT stressed.

At the event, a positive assessment was given to the results of the activities of the Interdepartmental Commission for Work with the WTO as part of the process of Uzbekistan's accession to the organization, including in the range of preparing an expanded package of documents and conducting bilateral negotiations on access to the country's market.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting of the working group, the Chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission for Work with the WTO - Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov noted the importance and absolute priority of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO as one of the main directions of reforms in the country's foreign economic policy.

The head of the delegation of Uzbekistan confirmed the firm determination of the country to actively promote the process of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO and complete bilateral negotiations with all interested member states of the organization in the near future.

According to the agenda, the working group began a detailed discussion of the submitted documents on the foreign trade regime of Uzbekistan, including a factual summary, answers to questions from member countries, information on economic policy, measures implemented in the country to privatize state assets, customs and tariff policy, state support agriculture, industrial subsidies.

The delegation of Uzbekistan is also holding a series of bilateral negotiations in Geneva on market access for goods and services with the United States, the EU, Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia and other key WTO member states, as well as members of the working group on Uzbekistan's accession to organization.

The previous, fourth meeting of the group was held in July 2020 online after an almost 15-year break.

Sardor Umurzakov, speaking at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the World Trade Organization on June 12 in Geneva, noted that due to the negative consequences of the pandemic, the process of joining the organization has become more complicated. He called on the WTO member countries to be more flexible and assured that Uzbekistan intends to complete the accession process as soon as possible.