The European Union (EU) is ready to assist Turkmenistan in the process of accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and to strengthen cooperation in this direction, the EU Ambassador to Turkmenistan Diego Ruiz Alonso said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The press conference was dedicated to the presentation of the photobook “Ashgabat.Fragments of History” on the occasion of the Ashgabat Day.
Turkmenistan is the WTO observer, Ambassador Diego Ruiz Alonso said, adding that the EU has been cooperating with the Government of Turkmenistan on the WTO accession process.
The envoy stated that the EU is closely working with Uzbekistan, because it is also working on the WTO membership. He added that the EU intends to use the same model for Turkmenistan, providing technical assistance to prepare high level technical civil servants to lead the country's accession process to the WTO.
The EU Ambassador said Turkmenistan’s acceding country (active observer) status in the WTO demonstrates its desire to comply with the multilateral trading system.
Turkmenistan obtained WTO observer status in July 2020. Turkmenistan’s official application to join the WTO was formally received on 24 November 2021. In February 2022, Turkmenistan was granted the status of an acceding country (active observer) to the WTO.
In addition to Turkmenistan, 23 countries and territories are currently in the process of negotiating their WTO membership.