During the President’s Special Representative for the World Trade Organization Azizbek Urunov’s trip to Beijing, an agreement was reached between China and Uzbekistan on the latter’s accession to the WTO.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Trade Minister of the People’s Republic of China Li Fei and Director of the Department Li Defeng.

In his message, Urunov emphasizes that there are “few” countries which Uzbekistan still needs to negotiate for this agreement with.

“The end of the year has become crucial in joining the WTO. Negotiations with two leading trade players — the United States and China — have been concluded. We have agreements with 22 countries, there are only few left,” Urunov wrote.

It is important to note that Uzbekistan’s negotiations with the United States were completed in early November.

In addition, this year, a number of other countries, including Israel, Brazil, and Sri Lanka, have expressed their support on the issue.

Additionally, on November 6th, at the forum “Days of the European Economy in Uzbekistan”, Urunov discussed that Uzbekistan needs to conclude negotiations with several more countries. The exact number was not specified, but, besides China, Russia, Great Britain, Switzerland, as well as the countries of the European Union were among them.