An American expert can be involved as a permanent adviser to the Minister of Employment and Labor Relations. This issue was considered at a meeting of the Uzbek delegation headed by Deputy PM Tanzila Narbayeva with the US Deputy Secretary of Labor Martha Newton in Washington on February 7, the press service of the MFA reported. 
 
Marta Newton noted tangible progress in eradicating forced labor in Uzbekistan over the past two years. 
 
The sides discussed cooperation between the labor departments of Uzbekistan and the US on implementation of the international labor standards, joint research of the labor market and demographic situation of Uzbekistan and management of large databases. 
 
“These areas of cooperation are particularly relevant in the context of developing a new Labor Code of Uzbekistan and plans for conducting a census in 2022,” the report says. 
 
The government delegation also met with Deputy Assistant of the US Trade Representative for the issues of application in the General System of Preferences (GSP) Erland Herfindahl and representative for South and Central Asia Zeba Reyazuddin. 
 
Erland Herfindal informed on the current consideration of the issue of applying the GSP duty free trade regime in relation to Uzbekistan. According to him, this process is caused by the issue of forced labor. In this context, it would be useful in developing appropriate recommendations for the presidential administration of the US. 
 
The US side welcomed the constructive negotiations of the Uzbek delegation with the Cotton Campaign – a global coalition of human rights, labor, investment and business organizations. These negotiations should have a positive impact on the perception of openness of Uzbekistan among the US human rights community, it was noted at the meeting. 
 
The delegation also held talks with the ambassador-at-large in the field of monitoring and combating human trafficking John Richmond. 
 
“The representative of the US Department of State welcomed openness of the government of Uzbekistan to discuss “sensitive issues” and praised the measures taken in the republic to prevent the use of child and forced labor,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.