THREE DECADES TO THE FINISH LINE

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Uzbekistan applied for membership of the World Trade Organisation in 1994. For more than two decades, the process moved at a pace that reflected the country’s cautious approach to international economic integration. That changed in July 2020, when the Working Party held its fourth formal meeting and negotiations began in earnest. Since then, 12 Working Party sessions have taken place.

 

More than 40 rounds of bilateral market access negotiations have been conducted. By January 2026, bilateral agreements had been concluded with 33 of 34 engaged WTO members, including the European Union, China, the United Kingdom, Russia, Switzerland, Canada and Australia.

 

At the 12th Working Party meeting on 9 March 2026, Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev confirmed that Uzbekistan is committed to completing accession by the end of 2026. The draft now contains 62 commitments, up from 56 at the previous session. Five new bilateral market access agreements were deposited with the WTO Secretariat since the last meeting, with Ecuador, the EU, Paraguay, Russia and Uruguay.

 

The Working Party Chair, Ambassador Sung-yo Choi of the Republic of Korea, described the progress as “impressive since 2020” and confirmed that bilateral negotiations are close to conclusion.

 

THE SCALE OF REFORM

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The legislative effort behind the accession is substantial. Since 2020, Uzbekistan has completed over 200 domestic legal reforms aligned with WTO requirements. In 2025 alone, 30 WTO-related legal actions were adopted: four laws, eight presidential decrees, 12 decisions from the Cabinet of Ministers and six departmental regulations.

 

An additional 29 legal acts have been drafted. Presidential Decree DP-85, issued in June 2025, brought specific laws and measures into conformity with WTO rules in direct response to concerns raised by members during Working Party sessions.

The World Bank has recognised Uzbekistan as one of the top reformers worldwide in the context of its accession preparations. Technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary measures have been brought into alignment with WTO standards.

 

The Technical Regulation Agency has been restructured to accelerate international product certification. Export restrictions have been replaced with transparent export duties. A joint study by the IMF and WTO staff found that economies making deeper commitments during accession grew on average 1.5 percentage points faster than they otherwise would have. Uzbekistan’s 7.7 percent GDP growth in 2025 suggests the country is already capturing that dividend.

 

WHAT MEMBERSHIP MEANS FOR TRADE

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WTO membership will integrate Uzbekistan into a rules-based trading system of 166 member economies accounting for over 98 percent of global trade. For exporters, it means predictable tariff schedules, transparent customs procedures and access to the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism.

 

For the country’s 8,700 exporting enterprises, including the 2,800 new entrants that joined in 2025, membership removes the uncertainty that comes with operating outside the multilateral framework. Finished goods and semi-finished products, which the government targets at 55 percent of exports by 2026, will move through borders on terms that trading partners have agreed to in advance.

 

The accession complements existing trade agreements. The GSP+ arrangement with the EU, in effect since April 2021, already provides zero-tariff access on two thirds of tariff lines. The Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed in October 2025 extends cooperation into trade facilitation, critical raw materials and regulatory alignment.

 

In the United States, legislation to grant Central Asian countries Permanent Normal Trade Relations status was introduced in Congress in November 2025. WTO membership adds a permanent multilateral foundation beneath these bilateral and regional frameworks, locking in the openness that individual agreements have begun to deliver.

 

THE INVESTMENT SIGNAL

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For international investors, WTO accession is a governance guarantee. It means that trade rules, once agreed, cannot be reversed by executive decision alone. Tariff ceilings are bound. Subsidies are transparent. Intellectual property protections meet international standards.

 

The signal to capital markets is unambiguous: Uzbekistan is anchoring its reform programme within an external rules-based framework that is designed to be durable. This is the same logic that drove the creation of UzNIF, the dual London-Tashkent listing, and the appointment of Franklin Templeton: institutions that give investors confidence that the rules of engagement will hold.

 

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has identified Uzbekistan as a priority candidate for accession, alongside Ethiopia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in March 2026, she praised both countries for their sustained efforts. Chief Negotiator Azizbek Urunov, the President’s representative to the WTO, has led the technical process since the restart, coordinating across ministries and agencies in Tashkent with a team of senior officials from economy, finance, justice and trade.

 

The 165,000 investors in the Club of Investors network across 48 countries will soon be operating in a country that sits inside, not alongside, the global trading system.