On April 16 this year, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan S. Umurzakov held a video conference with Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Alan Wolff.

The negotiations touched upon the progress and prospects of Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO, in particular, organization of the 4^th meetings of the Working Group.

The parties noted that significant transformations in Uzbekistan, which took place under the authority of the head of state, encourage key WTO members to have a positive attitude towards Uzbekistan. Moreover, international experts are positively assessing the pace and level of preparation of documents required for Republic’s accession to the WTO.

The Uzbek side was informed on suspension of all official WTO activities since mid-March this year due to the existing epidemiological situation.

Therefore, on April 17 this year, member-states will start informal consultations on resuming the operation of main WTO’s authorities in the remote mode using the information and communication technologies.

If member-states take a positive decision to resume their operation in the remote mode, their main task will be to hold regular meetings of Working Groups on the accession of candidate states, including Uzbekistan.

Wolff assured that the WTO Secretariat is ready to provide a comprehensive support to Uzbekistan in its accession to this Organization and called on the Uzbek side to intensify joint work.

The negotiations resulted in the agreement to continue joint work with the WTO headquarters in the remote mode to accelerate and qualitatively promote the initiatives developed during negotiations.