Uzbekistan Accelerates WTO Accession Talks

Uzbekistan has ramped up World Trade Organization accession process, the WTO announced. Since the last working party meeting, which took place in March, Uzbekistan "has sustained its technical engagement" on both the bilateral and multilateral fronts, submitted a host of updated documents for the next working party meeting, and "introduced a number of critical policy and institutional measures" to ramp up talks, South Korea's Ambassador Yun Seong-deok, who chairs the working party, said. Uzbekistan's Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjayev laid out various institutional changes to move the negotiations forward, including "the establishment of a special department in the Ministry of Justice for ensuring compliance with WTO rules and the creation of WTO divisions in 20 ministries and agencies."