Uzbekistan Finalizes WTO Accession Negotiations with UK

Uzbekistan has concluded bilateral negotiations with the United Kingdom in its ongoing process of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), said Azizbek Urunov, Presidential Special Representative for WTO Affairs.

"At the end of last month, we were in London to conduct bilateral negotiations with the British team. Now I would like to announce their completion, and since then we have undergone internal procedures to sign the protocol on the sidelines of the 10th working group meeting in Geneva on June 12, 2025," Urunov said on social media, The Caspian Post reports citing Interfax.

The UK is the 24th country which Uzbekistan has successfully concluded market access negotiations with, he said. Dialogue with several other WTO members remains ongoing.

In May, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was briefed that negotiations on market access had been conducted with 33 countries as part of the bilateral track. Authorities were instructed to complete bilateral talks with the remaining nine countries by the end of this year.

Large-scale legal and institutional reforms are being implemented to align national legislation with WTO requirements. Specifically, 13 laws, 10 presidential decrees and resolutions, 19 cabinet resolutions and 10 interdepartmental regulations have been adopted.

Procedures in customs regulation, export-import operations and intellectual property have been gradually harmonized. To accelerate market reforms and align legislation with WTO standards, the government has revoked exclusive economic rights from several major state-owned enterprises in the metallurgy, chemicals and energy sectors.

Uzbekistan resumed its WTO accession process in 2017. In July 2019, the country submitted an updated Memorandum on the Foreign Trade Regime to the WTO for consideration of its membership application. Uzbekistan began negotiations with WTO members on accession terms in late June 2022.

At talks in Geneva at the end of May 2024, Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khojaev announced Uzbekistan's goal to join the WTO by 2026. The WTO working group urged the government to take on additional commitments.