Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Uzbekistan and the United States are concluding market access negotiations as part of Uzbekistan’s accession process to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This was announced by Azizbek Urunov, Uzbekistan’s Special Representative for WTO Issues, on his LinkedIn profile.

Urunov stated, "We had a very fruitful week with our USTR colleagues in Washington D.C. I would like to kindly inform that on market access negotiations with the United States we are transitioning into the finalization phase. Overall, the meetings went well, both on market access and agricultural support measures."

He also shared that he had the privilege of meeting with Mona Haddad, Director of the World Bank’s Global Trade Department, to discuss a roundtable dedicated to Uzbekistan’s reforms in line with its WTO accession, which will be held during the 2024 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group (WBG).

Urunov extended his gratitude to Olya Lutchyn, Justin H. Hoffmann, Neil Beck, Brendan Lynch, Ambassador Katherine Tai of the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, and Mona Haddad for their strong support of Uzbekistan’s WTO accession process.

The working group for Uzbekistan’s WTO accession was established in 1994. The official process was resumed at the fourth meeting of the working group in July 2020. Four more meetings of the working group took place from 2022 to 2024.

Uzbekistan aims to join the WTO before the 14th Ministerial Conference, scheduled to be held in Cameroon in 2026, as reported by Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khojaev, who led the country’s delegation at the eighth meeting of the working group on Uzbekistan’s WTO accession.