Uzbekistan might join the free trade zone of the Commonwealth of Independent States by the end of May 2013, Director of the First Department of the CIS States of the Russian Foreign Ministry told reporters on 29 January before the start of ministerial consultations in the CIS Executive Committee, BelTA has learnt.
Uzbekistan will join a CIS free trade zone by the end of this year, CIS steering committee head Sergei Lebedev said on Friday at a CIS heads of government meeting in the Crimean city of Yalta.
The American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce has been arguing strongly to bring the US-Uzbek bilateral investment treaty into force. The Uzbeks have signed it, but the US has not yet ratified it.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and representatives from the five Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) today that will provide a forum to address trade issues and will help enhance trade and investment between the United States and Central Asia.