Describes trade agreements this country is a party to. Includes resources where U.S. companies can get information on how to take advantage of these agreements.
Uzbekistan has signed trade agreements with 47 countries providing most favored nation treatment. It also signed bilateral investment treaties with 49 countries, but five of them have not entered into force. The country became an observer in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in 2020 and is preparing to join the Eurasian Development Bank. Uzbekistan is not a member of WTO, but is working on accession. In 2004, Uzbekistan and Russia signed a Strategic Framework Agreement that also includes free trade and investment concessions. In November 2005, the government signed the “Treaty of Alliance Relations” with Russia, with provisions for economic cooperation. Uzbekistan and Ukraine’s 2004 agreement removes all bilateral trade barriers. Uzbekistan’s membership in the CIS Free Trade Zone was formalized in 2014. Uzbekistan currently has free trade agreements with eleven countries - all of them are former members of the Soviet Union. On April 9, 2021, the European Union accepted Uzbekistan as the ninth beneficiary of its expanded General System of Preferences (GSP+) trade arrangement, which removes tariffs on two thirds (6,200 titles) of the product lines covered by GSP. On November 1, 2021, Uzbekistan became the first country admitted to the United Kingdom’s Enhanced Framework Generalized Scheme of Preferences, which allows zero import duty on more than 7,800 products made in Uzbekistan.
The “Treaty between the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Government of the United States of America Concerning the Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investment” was signed in Washington, D.C., on December 16, 1994, and ratified soon thereafter by the Uzbekistani Parliament. The U.S. government, however, has not acted to bring this agreement into force. In 2004 Uzbekistan signed the regional Trade Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office and four of its Central Asian neighbors – Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic.