Submitted by: Olim Odilov id 0016399 Name of Lecturer: Nigina Rustamova Entry Storyboard Word Count

Submitted by: Olim Odilov
ID 00016399
Name of Lecturer:
Nigina Rustamova
Entry 1 - Storyboard
Word Count: 633
Issue Question:
Should the government of Uzbekistan take measures the accession to the World Trade Organization so as to eliminate internal monopolies?

In this day and age, monopolies amongst countries with economic potential occur with a lot less prevalence. However, we can see that the measures implemented in our country are not enough, leading the society of Uzbekistan to suffer greatly from internal monopolies. I was interested in finding a solution to this issue since my future profession is related to this field. We have heard a lot about the negative aspects of monopoly. With the ability to impose their own discriminatory conditions, they can prevent free and fair competition in the economy, oppress relatively small businesses, pay society lower wages for the labor of their employees, produce goods of poor quality, and raise the price of goods to an extremely high level. It seems to me that the solution to such a problem is Uzbekistan’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Due to the fact that the WTO does not automatically equalize countries' levels of competitiveness, the substantial opening of national markets that would result from Uzbekistan's participation in the group will usher in a challenging and sometimes unfair level of competition for them. In addition, if Uzbekistan wishes to increase exports and draw in foreign capital, it must be able to compete successfully on global markets.
State of practice	Today, the world has 195 countries, of which 164 are already members of the WTO. Of the remaining 31 non-member countries, 22 are currently negotiating their accession to the WTO, including Uzbekistan (Imamov, 2022). It is clear that WTO membership is important and brings significant benefits to its members in many areas of the economy and society. The World Trade Organization states in its latest annual report (2022) that in October, a delegation from the WTO Secretariat headed by DDG Zhang traveled to Tashkent. Sardor Umurzakov, Uzbekistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, reaffirmed his government's unwavering commitment to WTO membership as a top priority and a crucial component of its extensive reform agenda. DDG Zhang applauded the Uzbek government for its efforts to leverage the accession process as part of its development plan and for pursuing an ambitious internal reform agenda. Moreover, Turkmenistan submitted a WTO membership application in November, asking for the General Council to examine it for approval in the first half of 2022. It is the final former Soviet republic to submit a membership application.
History of debate	After independence in 1991, Uzbekistan rapidly transitioned to participation in the global economy and multilateral trade. In December 1994, Uzbekistan submitted an application to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), but negotiations lapsed after a while. With the exception of Kyrgyzstan, which was the only Central Asian nation to join the WTO in the 20 years following the fall of the Soviet Union, this was not unusual among Central Asian nations (Pomfret, 2020). Afterwards, three meetings of the Working Party took place (July 2002, June 2004 and October 2005). However, in 2007 all active efforts under the accession process were suspended (Akhmedov and Kutovoi, 2022).
Context	The government has approved a "roadmap" of 34 tasks meant to prepare the paperwork for the restart of the accession process and modify domestic law. According to Akhmedov and Kutovoi (2022), in later phases, the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan should, among other things, hold bilateral talks with pertinent WTO members to reach agreements on access to Uzbek markets for products and services and to revise domestic law to comply with WTO rules and regulations. Therefore, developing the fundamental principles of the country's long-term economic strategy will be necessary in order for Uzbekistan to join the WTO, in addition to the civilized control of international commerce. Additionally, in compliance with WTO regulations, foreign investors are expected to debate and find solutions to the most basic systemic challenges connected to changes in the country's present legal system.