“I would like to announce the completion of bilateral negotiations with the Republic of Korea within the framework of Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO, as well as the signing of the corresponding protocol in the presence of the leaders of the two countries,” the special representative of the President of Uzbekistan on WTO issues, Aziz Urunov, said.

The last meeting of the Working Group on Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO took place in May in Geneva. Deputy PM Jamshid Khodjayev said that Uzbekistan intends to complete the process of accession to the WTO by the 14th Ministerial Conference of the organization in Cameroon in 2026.

Uzbekistan applied for WTO membership in 1994, and a working group was created at the same time. After its third meeting in 2005, the process was suspended for 15 years, and only in 2020 did negotiations resume.