Uzbekistan improves relations with Brussels and the international community

Relations between the EU and Uzbekistan have come a long way since the dark days of the fairly recent past. Under the long-serving reign of the country's former president Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan was something of an international outcast - criticized for its rights record and kept out of international bodies. But, since assuming power four years ago, Uzbekistan’s president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has gone out of his way improve relations with Brussels and the international community, writes Colin Stevens.

Mirziyoyev has endeavoured to shift old perceptions about his homeland - and the big prize came recently in the form of specialised European trade preferences that could bring in millions of euros to his country. Through this scheme, the EU grants preferential trade status to a select few countries to encourage sustainable development and good governance. In April, the EU said that Uzbekistan had been accepted as the ninth beneficiary of the Special Incentive Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance, GSP+.

The scheme is intended to support “vulnerable developing countries” that have ratified a bevy of international conventions on human rights. The move, for Uzbekistan at least, is particularly timely. While the trade balance between the EU and Uzbekistan sat at €2.3 billion in 2019, it is tilted far more toward European exports to Uzbekistan. In 2019, Europe imported €190 million worth of goods from Uzbekistan; that year Europe exported €2.4bn worth of goods to Uzbekistan. In reviewing Uzbekistan’s recent economic record, a report last autumn on the country’s GSP+ application noted that following Uzbekistan’s May 2018 Universal Periodic Review, the country had accepted 93 percent of the recommendations made.

The country now joins Armenia, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka in the elite GSP+ club. It is hard not to under estimate the value of the GSP scheme, for example, in boosting trade and development. As a beneficiary of GSP+, Uzbekistan will enjoy the removal of further tariffs, which should attract new investment and encourage export growth.This is expected to make trade easier and attract investment for businesses in the country. The acceptance of Uzbekistan as a beneficiary of GSP+ reflects the recognition of reforms in Uzbekistan, including the business climate which has greatly improved in recent years.

A source at the European Commission said: “GSP+ status is an opportunity to support Uzbekistan in its economic development and to build a more sustainable future.” A source at the European External Action Service (EEAS) told this website that the acceptance of Uzbekistan as a beneficiary of GSP+ reflects the recognition of reforms undertaken by the government. In particular, he cites efforts to improve the business climate, the judicial system, security services, labour conditions, and administrative accountability and efficiency. The deal, he said, "also testifies to consistent positive development in the socio-economic and labour sphere.”

The source added: “There have been, for instance, major efforts to eradicate the systemic use of child labour in the cotton harvest and production processes in Uzbekistan. The ILO, in its Third-Party Monitoring of the cotton harvest in 2018 and 2019, confirmed the elimination of systematic or systemic use of child labour in the cotton harvest.

“The ILO Third-Party Monitoring of the 2019 cotton harvest concluded that systemic or systematic use of adult forced labour had been eliminated too.”

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These results were confirmed by the latest ILO Third-Party Monitoring report on the 2020 cotton harvest, released in January 2021. The EEAS source continued: “Uzbekistan’s GSP+ status is an opportunity to support the country in its economic development and in building a more sustainable future. GSP+ also gives the EU leverage and the obligation to continuously monitor the effective implementation of the 27 GSP+ relevant conventions. “This monitoring will be based on an on-going dialogue with the Government of Uzbekistan and other relevant stakeholders, including through in-person monitoring visits as soon as conditions allow, with specific focus on the identified shortcomings.”

Tom Giles, an expert on relations between the EU and central and eastern European countries, told this site: “As a developing country, Uzbekistan has long received trade benefits under the standard GSP - but ascension to the GSP+ now doubles the number of goods that will receive lower tariffs.

“Trading with the world’s biggest market – the EU - without tariffs will bring immense economic and financial benefits to Uzbekistan’s business and economic sectors.”

But he cautions: “In exchange, Uzbekistan will need to ratify and effectively implement to the environment and governance principles.” His sentiments are partly echoed by Umida Niyazova, the founder and director of Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, a German-based NGO dedicated to defending and promoting human rights in Uzbekistan. However, she also warns: “While Uzbekistan has progressed from the dark days under President Karimov, it still has a long way to go.”

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