The commitment was announced by Azizbek Urunov, Uzbekistan's Chief Negotiator and the President's Special Representative on WTO Affairs, during the 13th meeting of the WTO Working Party on the Accession of Uzbekistan.
According to Urunov, the accession process has made significant progress since the previous Working Party meeting in March. One indication of that progress, he said, is the reduced number of questions raised by WTO member states.
Since March, Uzbekistan has aligned around 190 legal and regulatory acts with WTO requirements. The reforms include updated sanitary and phytosanitary measures, a restructuring of the country's food safety system through the establishment of a unified Food Safety Committee, and further revisions to draft legislation on anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures.
Chair of the Working Party, Ambassador Sung-yo Choi (Republic of Korea), said the WTO Secretariat has now received 31 bilateral market access agreements, with the latest signed with India. He noted that the bilateral market access negotiations are in their final stage and urged the remaining parties to conclude talks as soon as possible.
WTO members welcomed Uzbekistan's ongoing reforms, including the privatization of state-owned enterprises and measures aimed at improving the transparency and predictability of the business environment.
Speaking on behalf of the WTO Director-General, WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang thanked both Uzbekistan and WTO members for their continued commitment to the accession process.
According to the chair of the Working Party, although substantial work remains, Uzbekistan's accession can be completed provided that all parties resolve the remaining issues in a timely manner.
The next meeting of the Working Party is expected to take place in late autumn after the necessary package of documents has been prepared and circulated.
Uzbekistan applied to join the WTO in 1994. The country's accession negotiations entered an active phase in 2020.
