The website of the World Trade Organization stated that Uzbekistan remains unwavering in its commitment to become a member of this structure and all opportunities are being used to achieve this. The Republic intends to join the World Trade Organization before the 14th Ministerial Conference to be held in Cameroon in 2026. Also at the eighth meeting of the working group on Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO, the efforts of our country in this direction were highly appreciated. At the same time, the areas where measures need to be taken have been highlighted.
Within the framework of the international division of labor, the development of national economies has seriously reduced its priority by the 21st century. Today, the high level of technological development, the world economy based on global competition and the trend towards progress based on digitalization have made it necessary for any national economy to develop on the basis of international trade. It has become obvious that no country can develop without entering into international trade relations.
Therefore, a presidential decision on additional measures to accelerate the process of Uzbekistan's accession to the World Trade Organization was adopted on 2 June 2023, in which Uzbekistan's membership in that organization is noted as an important task for the near future.
The member States of the World Trade Organization conduct international trade on equal terms. In this regard, an Interdepartmental Commission on work with the World Trade Organization was formed under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Zhamshid Khodjaev. It is entrusted with the task of clearly defining our country's position on market access, as well as making decisions on foreign trade regime through changes in tariff and non-tariff measures in the process of bilateral and multilateral negotiations with WTO member states. The aim is to consider proposals prepared by the Ministry of Justice, relevant ministries and agencies on harmonization of national legislation with WTO agreements, rules and regulations and to take decisions on their implementation in national legislation.
Over the past period, the Commission has implemented a number of measures. In particular, Uzbekistan adopted the Act on amendments and additions to certain legislative acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan providing for the harmonization of national legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan with the agreements of the World Trade Organization, on the basis of which amendments and additions were made to the Act on inventions, utility models and industrial designs, the Act on trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin, the Act on advertising, the Act on medicines and pharmaceutical activities, and the Act on the use of medicines and pharmaceutical products. As a result of amendments and additions to the Law "On State Duty" alone, in accordance with the requirements of the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, the amount of state duty for state registration of enterprises with foreign investment and local enterprises has been unified and set at one times the basic calculation value. In general, according to the Ministry of Justice, after the process of Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO entered an active stage, during 2023-2024 a total of 24 regulatory legal acts were adopted and about 40 documents were agreed upon in order to bring the national legislation in line with the agreements and procedures of the organization.
The negotiating team for Uzbekistan's accession to the World Trade Organization announced the signing of market access protocols with three countries - Japan, Israel and the Dominican Republic - and the completion of negotiations with Thailand on the sidelines of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Abu Dhabi from 26-29 February. As of March this year, the Uzbek government has finalized negotiations with 11 states as part of its accession. Of these, nine are protocols to finalize market accession negotiations.
As this article is being prepared, another bold and extremely important step in this direction has been taken. The Decree of the head of state "On regular measures on further acceleration of market reforms and bringing the national legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan in line with the agreements of the World Trade Organization" dated June 3, 2024 was published.
The Decree abolished from January 1, 2025:
- the right of JSC "Uzmetkombinat" to procure (purchase) scrap and waste of ferrous metal on the territory of the Republic;
- the right of JSC "Uzvtortsvetmet" to procure and export scrap and waste of non-ferrous metals on the territory of the Republic;
- the right of JSC "Uztrade" to ship food flour and wheat, as well as products of small businesses and private entrepreneurship, dekhkan and farms for export without providing a bank guarantee or insurance policy of export contracts against political and commercial risks to trading houses on consignment terms;
- the right of a single agent of "Uzkimyoimpex" LLC in the implementation of export of chemical products of the organizations of "Uzkimyosanoat" JSC, as well as import of equipment, spare parts, components, raw materials for their production needs.
From July 1, 2026:
- The right of UzGasTrade JSC as a single exporter and single operator to purchase centrally through imports from external sources of natural gas;
- the right of Uzenergosotish JSC to carry out centralized export and import of electric energy.
And also from January 1, 2025 telecommunication operators with mobile and (or) wire telecommunication networks, operating in the territory of Uzbekistan, as an experiment are granted the right to direct connection to international Internet networks for their own commercial needs with full compliance with the requirements of operational and investigative activities, information and cyber security systems.
These measures are aimed at eliminating the monopoly in Uzbekistan in a number of areas. We believe that the elimination of monopoly in the Internet alone will itself make a huge contribution to accelerating the development of the digital economy in addition to healthy competition.
If the monopoly of the automotive industry in Uzbekistan is also abolished as the next step in this direction, it would accelerate accession to the World Trade Organization. In the automobile industry, although plants operate in Andijan, Samarkand, Khorezm, Jizzak, and Syrdarya oblasts, they still operate under some level of ownership and control of Uzavtosanoat JSC.
As noted above, trade between member states of the World Trade Organization is based on equal terms. There are still a number of issues to be resolved concerning tariff and non-tariff equality of the foreign trade regime, compliance of national legislation with the agreements, rules and norms of the WTO.
Since membership in the World Trade Organization is based on the uniformity of foreign trade procedures, one of the first issues to arise is to prevent the use of privileges in the financial support of producers. For privileges in any industry undermine healthy competition by providing an advantage to a certain category of business. This is contrary to the rules of the World Trade Organization.
In recent years, the practice of allocation of subsidies from the State budget to businesses and companies has significantly expanded in our country. The fact that subsidies are also provided to enterprises that need to independently seek financial resources to make profit, and some joint stock companies also channel them to the authorized capital, has really strengthened the dependent sentiments. Thus, over the past two years, the volume of subsidies allocated from the State Budget has increased from 5.63 trillion soums to 29.25 trillion soums, i.e. five times. It is no secret that this is the reason for the increase in the state budget deficit. And as it is known, any subsidy falls on the shoulders of other taxpayers. In general, since the subsidy contradicts the principles of market economy, it itself also does not comply with the rules of the World Trade Organization.
Based on the fact that benefits for business and business entities should be sharply reduced in connection with membership in the World Trade Organization and strictly regulated, one can only positively assess the following:
- from October 1, 2024 to April 1, 2025, Uzbekistan plans to phase out the practice of granting discounts for railway transportation within the country;
- abolition of privileges and preferences granted to domestic producers during procurement by corporate customers regulated by the current legislation, including preferences for domestically produced goods in the amount not exceeding 15 percent of the DDP (Uzbekistan) price of imported goods, as well as price preferences of up to 20 percent for domestically produced electrical and electrical household products from July 1, 2026;
- abolition of subsidies and preferences provided to support exports from January 1, 2025, including benefits for partial reimbursement of profit tax on income received from the sale of goods (services) for export, turnover tax, transportation costs, as well as support measures not prohibited by WTO rules;
- abolition of inefficient tax and customs privileges from January 1, 2025.
In addition, one of the important measures on the way to compliance with the agreements of the World Trade Organization is the issue of phased unification of tariffs for export-import services: excise tax rates for tobacco products will be introduced until January 1, 2026, and for alcohol and sugar until January 1, 2027.
In order to bring the existing customs duties, fees and costs in the country in line with the requirements of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of the WTO (GATT 1994), it was instructed to establish that from January 1, 2025, the customs duties introduced are not levied for fiscal purposes. This means that liberalization of the economy will be a major focus.
In general, the protection of local producers through high customs duties, i.e. the relaxation of protectionist policies, is important to achieve the objective. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that domestic producers adapt to global competition by gradually reducing customs duties until they become members of the World Trade Organization. Otherwise, upon accession to the WTO, the sudden introduction of customs duties in the practice of member states will cause the inability to face global competition.
Since WTO activities and membership in the organization are based on free trade and healthy competition, Uzbekistan's business entities should start preparing for such a procedure today. Introduction in 2024 of new restrictions on import of cars (including electric cars), import of elevators, as well as complication of import of household appliances, establishment of minimum export prices for a number of goods seem to return to the closure from the global market. And if such procedures contradict the provisions of the World Trade Organization, they should be abolished.
Special emphasis on large-scale privatization in Uzbekistan will ultimately serve the active development of the private sector. In this regard, the implementation of two presidential decrees adopted on April 19, 2024 "On additional measures to reduce state participation in the economy" and "On measures to transform and accelerate the privatization of large enterprises with state participation" is of great importance.
It should be noted that Uzbekistan's large-scale efforts to join the World Trade Organization are important for increasing the competitiveness of the national economy along with business development. Most importantly, people's well-being is improving through the consumption of quality products.
Samariddin Elmirzaev,
Head of the Department of the Banking and Finance Academy of RUz, Professor, Doctor of Economic Sciences

2024-06-22 03:45:20