Working Party chair visits Uzbekistan as WTO accession negotiations enter critical phase

The visit was the first by a Working Party chair since Uzbekistan's accession process formally resumed in July 2020. It took place at an important stage in the negotiations, following substantial progress made in recent years, including at the 13th meeting of the Working Party held on 27 and 28 July. Ambassador Choi met with Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev, the Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan and Chief Negotiator for WTO accession Azizbek Urunov and members of the Interagency Negotiating Team to take stock of progress and discuss priorities for the remaining stages of the negotiations.

Discussions focused on outstanding work across the main negotiating areas, including the bilateral market access negotiations and the draft commitment paragraphs in the draft Report of the Working Party. On the bilateral track, with most market access negotiations with interested WTO members completed, emphasis was placed on the need to finalize the remaining agreements and prepare Uzbekistan's draft goods and services schedules for technical verification.

On the multilateral track, discussions addressed the need for continued consultations with WTO members to narrow differences on Uzbekistan's outstanding draft commitments and advance preparations for the next Working Party meeting. The timing of the next meeting will depend on progress achieved in the accession process.

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