During the conversation, the current state of the process of Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO was discussed, as well as urgent tasks for further advancing negotiations in this direction, outlined in the new “Roadmap” of events for 2022, developed jointly with the organization’s secretariat in order to intensify the negotiation process.

The key topic of the talks was the preparation for the upcoming 5th meeting of the working group on Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO. The progress of the elaboration of new documents submitted by Uzbekistan to the WTO Secretariat for the meeting, as well as other issues of a substantive and organizational nature, was considered.

The WTO leadership expressed its commitment to providing comprehensive support to Uzbekistan in the process of joining the organization and intensifying bilateral cooperation for the prompt resolution of emerging issues. In this vein, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala voiced the readiness of the WTO Secretariat to expand technical assistance to Uzbekistan to support bilateral and multilateral negotiations with member countries of the organization.

Following the meeting, the parties agreed to maintain a regular dialogue for accelerated progress in resolving the issues discussed.