On October 26 this year, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan S.Umurzakov held a meeting with Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Xiangchen Zhang.

During the meeting, the current state of the negotiation process on Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO, as well as further steps for cooperation in this area were discussed.

Xiangchen Zhang expressed high appreciation for the efforts of Uzbekistan’s leadership to intensify the country's accession to the WTO. He further noted that, thanks to measures initiated by the Uzbek side, cooperation with the Organization has become dynamic and intensive. WTO Deputy Director-General also emphasized that Uzbekistan is the first country he has visited since taking up a new position in August of this year.

For Uzbekistan, WTO accession is a priority aimed at further integration of the country into the multilateral trading system.

It was emphasized that the country's Government is committed to continuing the implementation of measures to liberalize trade nad modernization of the foreign trade reform systems based on the principles and rules of the WTO agreements, encouraging foreign investment, and introducing the best global practices to provide sustainable economic growth.

The parties discussed practical issues of cooperation on holding the 5th meeting of the Working Party on Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO by the end of this year. The leadership of the Organization expressed readiness to provide comprehensive support in holding this event and in general in the process of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO. An agreement was reached on expansion of technical assistance to Uzbekistan by the WTO Secretariat and its international experts in preparation of the necessary documents.

Following the meeting, the parties indicated mutual readiness to intensify joint work to accelerate the advancement of all issues related to the negotiation process.