News

12.10.2021

EEC and Republic of Uzbekistan identified trajectories for developing interaction

Prospects for developing trade and economic cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan were discussed by attendees of the first meeting of the joint Working Group co-chaired by Sergei Glazyev, EEC Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics, and Badriddin Abidov, Deputy Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, held on October 11 via videoconferencing.
"The Eurasian Economic Union is principal external partner of Uzbekistan, and for the Union, trade cooperation with Uzbekistan is of strategic nature both in terms of the trade scale and the range of traded goods", Sergei Glazyev stressed.

According to the EEC Minister, intensifying the dialogue between Uzbekistan and the Union has obvious economic prospects. 

"Since forming the EAEU in 2015, the trade turnover with Uzbekistan has increased by 2 times. There were some difficulties last year, but already in the first half of 2021, the trade turnover increased by 16% compared to the same period last year and amounted to almost 5 bln US dollars. Despite all benefits from interaction between the EAEU and Uzbekistan, the trade turnover between our countries has not yet unlocked its full potential. We have the possibilities to further promote our trade and economic relations both in terms of the volume of cooperation and the diversification of industries involved in this interaction", Sergei Glazyev stated.

In turn, Badriddin Abidov has noted the emerging international standing of the EAEU and specified the following as priorities of Uzbekistan's interaction with the EEC: simplifying and digitalizing trade, removing existing trade restrictions; bringing customs administration, technical regulation, sanitary, phytosanitary and veterinary standards in line with the EAEU requirements; developing measures for industrial cooperation of production and food security; diversifying the transport corridors network; transfer of advanced technologies and information systems; interaction on green issues and climate change; and further training of Uzbek specialists through internships in the EEC units and public authorities of the EAEU Member States.

"Today, the trade turnover with the EAEU countries amounts to more than 30% of Uzbekistan's foreign trade and 75% of agricultural exports account for the Union States. Within a few short years we managed to establish constructive relations with the Commission within the Memorandum", Badriddin Abidov stressed.

During the meeting, representatives of the EEC and Uzbekistan summed up the interim progress on implementing the Joint Action Plan, discussed issues of cooperation in customs transit regulation as well as in the field of sanitary, phytosanitary and veterinary measures and consumer rights protection in the EAEU.

Representatives of the EAEU Business Council and the business community of Uzbekistan stressed the importance of intensifying the dialogue between the business circles of the EAEU and Uzbekistan by formalizing cooperation and organizing joint business missions.

According to Fedor Degtyarev, Chairman of the Russian-Uzbek Business Council, holding a joint meeting between representatives of business councils of the EAEU States and the Republic of Uzbekistan focused on developing economic relations and generating proposals to enhance trade and economic cooperation could be a major step in this direction. According to Fedor Degtyarev, after relevant expert review, such proposals could be included in the agenda of both joint intergovernmental commissions on economic cooperation between the EAEU Member States and Uzbekistan and the agenda of subsequent meetings of the joint Working Group on interaction between the EEC and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The business representative sees the result of such work in the emerging role of business councils in identifying obstacles to trade and economic cooperation for their timely localization.

Following the event, a protocol was signed wherein some proposals on implementing objectives to develop economic interaction between the Union States and the Republic of Uzbekistan were enshrined.


For reference

On December 11, 2020, the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council granted the Republic of Uzbekistan the Observer State status at the EAEU.

On April 30, 2021, a Memorandum of Interaction between the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan was signed and the Joint Action Plan of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2021-2023 was approved.

Uzbekistan is the first trade partner of the EAEU countries among the CIS countries not being the EAEU members.

Since forming the EAEU in 2015, the trade turnover with Uzbekistan has increased by 2 times. At year-end 2020, it amounted to 9,438.4 bln US dollars, increasing by 4.1% compared to the level of 2019.