President approves amendments to harmonize legislation with WTO agreements

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, by his decree dated August 15, amended the legislation of Uzbekistan to harmonize it with the agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This was reported by the correspondent of “Gazeta.uz”.

According to Gazeta.uz, a number of countries with which negotiations are underway to join the WTO express claims due to certain points of legislation, in connection with which Uzbekistan is amending it.

The document introduces changes that provide for the abolition of the procedure for exemption from mandatory conformity assessment of products imported from individual states, starting from January 1, 2024.

Changes are being made to the procedure for labeling imported goods in the state language – also from January 1, 2024. In particular, for the customs clearance of goods in the “release for free circulation (import)” mode, mandatory marking of goods in the state language is not required. At the same time, it is prohibited to issue a certificate of conformity and a sanitary-epidemiological conclusion for certain types of imported consumer goods (with the exception of goods that do not have consumer packaging and goods imported for their own needs) according to the list approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, if the manufacturer, authorized representative of the manufacturer and the importer did not put labels on these goods in the state language.

From January 1, 2025, the customs clearance fee in the amount of 1.2% of the customs value is canceled when importing medicines and medical products. The President instructed to submit proposals for alternative financing for the implementation of relevant tasks by 2024 in connection with the abolition of this fee.

Additionally, proposals should be developed and submitted to the government on:

automation (digitization) of the process of issuing a license for the import of goods – before October 1;
bringing the system for issuing a subsidy to compensate for transportation costs in line with the requirements of the WTO – until January 1, 2024.
By November 1, it was instructed to prepare proposals for the unification of the rates of customs fees levied for the clearance of goods in the customs regimes “export” and “import”, in accordance with the requirements of the WTO.

The decree comes into force on January 1, 2024, and amendments to the legislation – on January 1, 2025.

We are talking about the exclusion of items providing for the abolition of the requirement to obtain a national certificate and a list of states with a high quality and control system when importing certified and declared equipment, components, raw materials, measuring and transport vehicles, chemicals and lifting mechanisms.

Now excise stamps for labeling alcoholic products are issued to domestic producers only after they pay 50% of the nominal value of excise stamps, and to importers after paying the entire amount of excise tax. From 2025, this amount will be 50% for both categories.

Negotiations on Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO resumed in July 2020 after an almost 15-year break (the meeting was the fourth that year). Speaking at a WTO conference ahead of the fifth meeting in 2022, then-Deputy Prime Minister Sardor Umurzakov urged WTO members to be more flexible and assured that Uzbekistan intends to complete the accession process as soon as possible.