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Roberto Azevedo –Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ranked Republic of Tajikistan as an important initiator in the multilateral trade system and congratulated Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin on his appointment as the Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

It was noted that Republic of Tajikistan has contributed to a number of WTO activities including trade facilitation, investments and dispute settlement, that have positive effect to the Sustainable development goals of WTO Member states.

Furthermore, Roberto Azevedo noted the need for participation of the Tajikistan’s delegation in revision of the issues in the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference,which will be held in June 2020 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

In the end, the WTO Director General wished the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan success in his important and responsible work and emphasized the development of the mutually beneficial cooperation with the Republic of Tajikistan.
03.03.2020

The signing ceremony of the Agreement on the Simplification of Trade Procedures between the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) took place on February 19, 2020 at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade with the participation of the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin and Director of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) Sabina Althof in the framework of the Agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the Republic of  Tajikistan, which was signed in Berlin on March 27, 2003.

The Agreement was signed by the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Director of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

The agreement is aimed at streamlining trade and transit procedures, improving the border management system, piloting and innovating activities to simplify trade procedures, as well as involving the private sector in decision-making regarding simplification of trade procedures.

It should be noted that the Agreement is of regional significance and its total value is 7 million Euros and covers four Central Asian countries, including the Republic of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

The project on simplification of trade procedures in Tajikistan will be implemented after signing the Agreement between the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) for 3 years, 2020-2023.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development published the results of an assessment of trade and investment in Asia and the Pacific in 2019, where the Tajikistan Trade Portal was recognized as the best model and important achievement among the countries of the region.
The Tajikistan Trade Portal which was developed by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and International Trade Centre with financial support of the Government of Switzerland and other development partners, namely the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the United Nations Development Programme and publicly introduced on 26 April 2019 was highly ranked by the publication and described as an exemplary platform for reducing time and costs of export, import and transit, as well as making the non-tarrif measures simplified and transparent.
The experts of these organizations consider the importance of private sector’s participation in the development of Tajikistan Trade Portal and assess the public-private partnership as one of the key areas for sustainable economic development.
Currently, the Portal provides information on export, import and transit procedures of 51 groups of goods, including more than 1,500 goods, 19 export procedures, 30 import procedures and 2 transit procedures.
Tajikistan Trade Portal also contains statistic information on export opportunities of the country, trading partner countries and other legal documents regulating foreign trade activity.

On 4-6 December 2019 in Moscow, Russian Federation during the "8th China Round Table" the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin presented Tajikistan’s position on “Joint initiatives and accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)” as a commentator of the event.
During the event the issues related to accession to the WTO, joint member initiatives on trade policy, economic integration and preparation for the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, which is scheduled in June 2020 in Nur-Sultan, Republic of Kazakhstan were discussed.
In the framework of this event Mr. Zavqizoda Z.A. had bilateral meetings with the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Mr. Maksim Oreshkin and Deputy General Director of the WTO Mr. Alan Wolff  and discussed the issues of economic and trade development.
The China Round Table organized annually by initiative of the Government of the People's Republic of China, the WTO Secretariat and one of the member country of this Organization.
It should be noted, that on June 1-5, 2015 the Republic of Tajikistan hosted the "Third China Round Table".

On 3 December 2019 with participation of representatives of ministries, agencies, private sector and international organizations, the 9th meeting of the Coordination Committee on Facilitation of Trade Procedures (CCFTP) was held. The meeting was conducted under the leadership of the First Deputy Head of Customs Services Tursunzoda Azim Haydar – the Deputy of the CCFTP’s Chairperson.
Within the framework of the meeting, issues related to the implementation of CCFTP protocol instructions, the action plan of the Committee for 2020 and the challenges of the private sector were discussed.
It was noted that noted that the Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan H. E. Emomali Rahmon during his annual address to the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan, as well as at the meetings of the Government of the country, gives special instructions to the relevant departments to resolve issues of providing favorable conditions for domestic entrepreneurs, development of domestic and foreign trade by taking necessary measures to remove barriers to trade and services.
In addition the representatives of the private sector made presentations and their challenges were revised by the representatives of the public sector.
It should be noted that on the basis of the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, in order to enhance dialogue between the private and public sectors, as well as to solve the problems of the business community, 4 CCFTP meetings are held annually.

On 27-29 November 2019 in Nur-Sultan City of the Republic of Kazakhstan the official delegation of the Republic of Tajikistan headed by the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin participated in the Conference «On Enhanced Integration for  Prosperity in Central Asia» which was held in the framework of the European Union’s Strategy for Central Asia.
European Union together with the Organization on Economic Cooperation and Development, European Council and International Trade Center announced the official launching of 3 new projects on trade facilitation, investment and economic development and rule of law with the total budget of 28 million Euros.
The delegation of the Republic of Tajikistan presented the achievements of the country in provision of macroeconomic sustainability and trade facilitation and for using the finance from the mentioned projects provided some requests.
Sides expressed their readiness to resolve the issues on removing technical barriers and development of trade between Central Asian countries on national and regional levels.
Some of the International Financial Organizations ranked the results of the Republic of Tajikistan’s trade facilitation as a successful experience in their presentations.

On November 19, 2019, the 14th meeting of the of the Working Group on Trade of the UN Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) was held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, under the leadership of the First Deputy Economic Development and Trade of Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin.
It should be noted that over the past years, the Republic of Tajikistan headed the SPECA Working Group on Trade and during the meeting issues of the SPECA Regional Strategy on trade facilitation, regional cooperation to achieve sustainable development goals, activities of the national committees on trade facilitation, Single Window, as well as non-tariff measures in trade were discussed.
Zavqizoda Z. A. provided information on the achievements of the Republic of Tajikistan in international trade, including the country's participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO), facilitation of trade procedures, export development, acceleration of the process of diversification of export-oriented products, and noted that not all of the existing opportunities are being used between SPECA member countries.
Furthermore, on 20-21 November 2019 the High Level Economic Forum of SPECA 2019 and the Council of Heads of SPECA was held, during which the delegation of Tajikistan in order to protect economic interests of country introduced its achievements and current opportunities and with the aim of further development of economic cooperation a number of strategic documents including SPECA National Strategy for Trade Facilitation, sustainable trade principles and elimination of non-tariff barriers to trade were proposed to the SPECA members. These documents were adopted by the Council of Heads of SPECA.

On November 15-16, 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, the official delegation of the Republic of Tajikistan headed by the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin conducted meetings with the Director of the WTO Trade Policy Evaluation Division Willy Alfaro, WTO Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation Institute for Continuing Education and Technical Cooperation Bridget Chilala, Senior Advisor of ITC for Trade Facilitation Muhammad Saeed and representatives of the UN Conference on Trade and Development and discussed issues of developing economic and trade cooperation.
During these meetings, representatives of the WTO and the UN highly ranked the achievements of the Republic of Tajikistan in the field of trade facilitation, in particular, the official launching of the Tajikistan Trade Portal and Single Window for processing export, import and transit procedures, and in this regard expressed their willingness to provide technical assistance to the Republic of Tajikistan to carry out the First trade policy review in the WTO and to improve the qualifications of the specialists in the field of trade.
It should be noted that on the basis of the instruction of the Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, H. E. Emomali Rahmon the First TPR of Tajikistan is planned to be held in April 2020 and in order to conduct this event on high level the relevant Action plan was validated by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
In addition, the delegation of Tajikistan participated and delivered a speech during the trade policy review of the Lao PDR.

Today, November 8, 2019, the start of the pilot phase of Single Window implementation on Export, Import and Transit Operations in the Republic of Tajikistan was officially launched in Dushanbe, which was attended by representatives of ministries, agencies, private sector and development partners.
The event was opened by the Head of the Customs Service under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Khurshed Karimzoda, who noted that in accordance with the instructions of the Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation, the President of the Republic of Tajikistan H.E. Emomali Rahmon, state agencies are obliged to take the necessary steps to speed up the process of introduction of modern information and communication technologies in their professional activity.
The speaker of the event, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin noted that the Single Window is a platform for the development of national sectors of economy, including trade facilitation, reduction of time and costs of subjects of foreign economic activity, increase of foreign trade and additional revenues to the budget will play a significant role.
Moreover, representatives of the private sector, in particular Asian Development Bank participated actively and delivered speeches at the event, whereas representatives of the contractual companies provided information through presentations.
Government decree of the Republic of Tajikistan dated December 31, 2008 ¹ 659 "Concept of Formation of Single Window on Export, Import and Transit Operations in the Republic of Tajikistan" and dated May 23, 2010, ¹222 “Program of Introduction of Single Window System for Export, Import and Transit Operations in the Republic of Tajikistan” were approved.
Also, for the purpose of organizing and effective functioning of the Single Window System by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan from December 3, 2010, No. 630 the State Unitary Enterprise "Single Window Center" was established which is under the Customs Service under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan and is kept from the budget funds.
During this period, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Customs Service together with the Center carried out significant work on the effective implementation of this concept and program, which is the confirmation of the aforementioned.

On October 21-22, 2019 in Washington D. C., USA, session of the Council on Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and meeting with the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and American investors with participation of the delegation of the Republic of Tajikistan headed by the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin were held.
Zavqizoda Z.A. highly ranked the mutually beneficial cooperation with the United States and Central Asian countries and provided information in the framework of the goals and priorities of the country's strategic documents, in particular on Tajikistan’s participation in TIFA, accelerating export development, facilitation of trade procedures, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and cooperation with TIFA member countries.
The parties also discussed issues on improving trade and economic relations between Tajikistan and the United States, including completed work on implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, prevention of the country’s re-inclusion in the “Special 301 Report” checklist, Tajikistan’s exclusion from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, usage of the Generalized System of Preferences GSP and increasing technical assistance from US.
On October 22, the country's delegation took part in the high-level panel “Economic Cooperation between the USA and Central Asian Countries” of the Uzbekistan and USA Annual Forum, during which the delegation provided answers to questions from US investors about investment opportunities in Tajikistan, digital economy and ways to develop trade and investment with the USA.
It was noted that the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan considers the improvement of economic and trade cooperation with Central Asian countries as a priority issue of the country's foreign policy, which proceeds from friendly relations and kind initiatives of the heads of states.
A meeting of the TIFA Council is held annually and within the framework of this meeting, issues of the current situation and forecasts of economic cooperation are discussed, including trade facilitation, regional trade development, the “Special 301 Report” checklist, intellectual property rights, standards, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and digital commerce.

On 23-27 September 2019 in the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan the project of the First Trade Policy Review (TPR) of the Republic of Tajikistan in the World Trade Organization (WTO) was developed by the official delegation of the WTO Secretariat and the representatives of the relevant ministries and agencies, private sector and international organizations.
It should be noted that on the basis of the instruction of the Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, H. E. Emomali Rahmon the First TPR of Tajikistan is planned to be held on 22-24 April 2020 and in order to conduct this event on high level the relevant Action plan was validated by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Moreover, in accordance with the adopted Action plan a permanent Working Group on development of the project of the First Trade Policy Review of the Republic of Tajikistan in the WTO was established.
In addition, on 27 September 2019 a meeting between the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mr. Zavqizoda Z. A. and the official delegation of the WTO Secretariat on revision of the Project of the First TPR of the Republic of Tajikistan was conducted. During the meeting the issues on the further steps for high level conducting the First TPR of the Republic of Tajikistan in the WTO were discussed.

On July 4 of this year in Switzerland, in the framework of the High Level Seminar on Trade in United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) was held the thirteenth session of the SPECA Thematic Working Group on Trade, which was chaired by the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin.
The event focused on the possibilities and challenges of cooperation between countries, regional implementation plans, realization of the provisions of the WTO Agreement on facilitation procedures, exchange of experiences between countries, mutual assistance among countries of the region, strengthening of cooperation in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, NTMs and technical barriers to trade, simplification of trade procedures and Sustainable trade in Central Asia.
Mr. Zavqizoda presented the achievements of the Republic of Tajikistan in the field of foreign trade, as a country's participation in the WTO, simplification of the trade procedures, enhancement of export, acceleration of the diversification of the export-oriented products and he noted that the existing capacities between SPECA’s members are not used completely.
In addition during the event, for the purpose of strengthening of the future trade cooperation between the SPECA’s member countries was developed the draft of "Regional SPECA trade facilitation Strategy" and relevant document on International Trade and Sustainable Development which sent to the Governments of the member states for approval.
It should be noted that the Republic of Tajikistan is chairing of the SPECA Working Group on trade.

On 2nd July 2019 during the meeting with the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Mr. Roberto Azevedo the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin has introduced the achievements of the country in international trade integration and trade facilitation in the framework of the WTO and also informed about the completed tasks on preparation of the Republic of Tajikistan to its first Trade Policy Review (TPR).
It was noted that on the basis of the instruction of the Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan H. E. Emomali Rahmon the first Trade Policy Review of Tajikistan is planned to be held in April 2020 and in order to conduct it on high level the relevant Action Plan was approved by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
During the meeting Mr. Roberto Azevedo highly ranked the achievements and progress of the Republic of Tajikistan in the post WTO accession period.
At the end of the meeting, the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade presented to the Director General of the WTO the Tajikistan’s Instrument of Acceptance of the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization.

During his speech at the 53rd annual session of the Joint Advisory Group of International Trade Centre (ITC) the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin has noted the achievements of the country in the post WTO accession period.
Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin has highly ranked the cooperation with the ITC and introduced the achievements of the country in the framework of implementation of strategic documents including participation of Tajikistan in the WTO, strengthening of the export development, acceleration of diversification of production of export oriented goods and facilitation of trade procedures.
In addition, implementation of the sectoral reforms led to the increase of the share of exports to the foreign trade turnover from 20% in 2015 to 25.4% in 2018. Tajikistan increased the trade partner countries from 90 to 110 and diversified the list export products from 150 to 480.
In the framework of technical and financial support provided by ITC, it was noted that during its cooperation with ITC, Republic of Tajikistan has achieved a number of significant accomplishments, including organization of seminars for more than 1200 employees of ministries, agencies and private sector, development of the Strategy on development of textile and clothing industry for the period of 2016-2025 and establishment of Tajikistan Trade Portal.
Participants of the Session highly appreciated the achievements of the Republic of Tajikistan in trade sector and its participation in the activities of the WTO and expressed their readiness for increasing support in these directions.

Dushanbe                    ¹7                                                    29    May  2019

Chairperson: Minister of the economic development and trade – N. Hikmatullozoda

The Members of CCFTP participated in the Meeting. In addition, development partners representatives, including ITC, UNDP, OSCE and IFC also participated in the Meeting.
According to the agenda of the meeting 3 items were discussed, including:
1. Report of the executive secretary of the CCFTP on implementation of the protocol instructions in 2018;
2. Challenges of the Private sector and given tax preferences in textile and clothing sector;
3. Acknowledgement of the RT certificates in other countries and reduction of list of products that are mandatorily being certificated.
Minister of economic development and trade – Chairperson of the CCFTP has stated the meeting and noted that the Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, H. E. Emomali Rahmon has given detailed instructions on providing favourable conditions for domestic producers and elimination of barriers for trade and services sector during the meetings of the Government of RT.
On 10th May 2019, a meeting of the Leader of the Nation and representatives of the finance, banking, tax, customs and investments sectors was conducted and relevant instructions on elimination of the existing problems were given. The CCFTP’s responsibility also includes elimination of the mentioned issues, including development of the new Tax Code.
During the meeting the executive secretary of the CCFTP has made a presentation on implementation of the 2018’s protocol instructions and noted that those instructions included implementation of the Roadmap of CCFTP, Categorization of TFA obligations, activation of the Tajikistan Trade Portal, implementation of the action plan on getting the legislation of the RT in line with TFA provisions, approval of the Program on development of transport services and selection of the new CCFTP Members from the number of representatives of the private sector.
CCFTP has validated the list of new CCFTP Members from the number of representatives of the private sector including the Union of Professional Consultants of Tajikistan and the Union of Private Sector Development.
Representative of the Union of Private Sector Development (UPSD) Mr. Muhammadiev Abdullo has made a presentation on challenges faced by the producers of textile and clothing sector. He has noted that these sectors face challenges on unhealthy competition brought by smuggling of uncertified and low quality products to the country.
Chair of the CCFTP added that during the meeting on 10th May, Leader of the Nation has given relevant instruction to the relevant border working agencies on elimination of smugglings to the country, provision of accurate statistics, proper customs and transportation procedures.
In addition, a representative of the Tax Committee has made a presentation on given preferences to the textile and clothing sector and its profits.
Head of the CCFTP noted that, currently an order on exemption from the VAT and customs duties of the raw materials that are not being produced in the territory of Tajikistan has been prepared and this document will ease some of the challenges of the producers of textile and clothing.
In addition, representative of UPSD has proposed to establish a Fund on support of the development of the textile industry under the Government of RT.
Furthermore, a representative of the LLC Lesinvest has made presentation on the challenges faced by the company. It was noted that the company is the only importer of the Red Bull in the country. Currently the company faces a lot of problems including smuggling of the Red Bull to the country and increasing the import customs duties for the energy drink. According to the new decree of the Government of RT “On import customs duties” Red Bull has customs duty of 20% but not less than 0,12 Euros for 1 Litre, which is relatively higher than it was before (0,07 Euros for 1 Litre).
Head of the CCFTP has given instruction to the WG on improvement of tariff and non-tariff measures to fully review this issue and report to the Secretariat on its results.
Representative of the Customs Service has noted their readiness to review the challenges of the company in accordance with legislation of the RT.
Next, a representative of Tajikstandart and Committee on Food Safety presented their reports on acknowledgement of the RT’s certificates in other countries.
It was noted that RT’s certificates are being acknowledged in accordance with the intergovernmental agreements, including the CIS Agreement from 13 March 1992. Also a report on reduction of list of mandatorily certificated products was presented to the participants.
Head of the Committee noted that more than 2500 of RT’s products are being mandatorily certificated which almost twice more than other countries.
Moreover, Head of the CCFTP noted that in order to implement requirements of the Law of RT “On foreign economic activity” and the 1 part, 2 paragraph of the action plan of Program of adjustment of economy of RT related to the WTO accession (31 October 2014, #691) a WG headed by the MEDT, with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for development of normative legal act on implementation of special safeguard, antidumping and countervailing measures for the 3rd countries should be established.
Furthermore, he has noted that in order to simplify the import and export procedures of products a WG with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for improvement of Tajikistan Trade Portal should be established.
Head of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Dushanbe noted that there are many opportunities for the development of the textile industry and SECO is ready to cooperate in this direction when a detailed project will be presented.
In addition, a representative of IFC has noted that currently a new project is being developed and it could provide new sources of financing for domestic producers and exporters.
Head of the Association of Customs brokers has noted her concern about challenges faced by the foreign economic participants’ during transportation of goods. She has also proposed to take into account the comments and proposals of the private sector during development of the Tax Code.
During the meeting discussions took place and members of the committee including Head of the committee, private sector representatives and the development partners shared their views on the agenda items.
At the end of the meeting, Head of the Committee noted that the protocol of the meeting should be prepared and the following decisions should be included to the protocol of the meeting:
1. Protocol instructions’ execution should be monitored by the Secretariat of the Committee;
2. Customs Service should send for revision of the Government of RT the draft Law on amendments to the Customs Code by the end of the second half of 2019;
3. Customs Service and Ministry of Transport should conduct import customs procedures in accordance with the destination of product and where the importer wants to complete the procedure. In addition a report on challenges should be presented to the CCFTP Secretariat;
4. Ministry of Transport should send for revision of Government of RT the Program on Transport Services development in the shortest period of time;
5. WG on improvement of tariff and non-tariff measures should completely revise the issue of the LLC Lesinvest and present a report to the Secretariat;
6. Committee on Food Safety and Tajikstandart should monitor the acknowledgement of the local certificates by other countries in accordance with intergovernmental agreements and present a report on this issue to the Secretariat of the CCFTP;
7. Within 3 months, Tajikstandart should prepare, get approval of ministries and agencies and send for revision of Government of RT a project of decree of the Government of RT “on amending the decree of Government of RT from 18 June 2012, #310 “ On the list of products that should be certificated mandatorily””;
8. Association of customs brokers of RT shall send a request to Ministry of Finance to join private sector in the development of the project of Tax Code;
9. A WG with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for revision of textile and clothing sector challenges should be established;
10. In order to implement requirements of the Law of RT “On foreign economic activity” and the 1 part, 2 paragraph of the action plan of Program of adjustment of economy of RT related to the WTO accession (31 October 2014, #691) a WG with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for development of normative legal act on implementation of special safeguard, antidumping and countervailing measures for the 3rd countries should be established;
11. In order to simplify the import and export procedures of products a WG with participation of specialists of ministries and agencies for improvement of Tajikistan Trade Portal should be established;
12. This protocol should be sent to the Members of the CCFTP, relevant ministries and agencies and private sector for revision and implementation of relevant instructions.

On May 29, 2019, the seventh meeting of  the Coordinating Committee on Facilitation of Trade Procedures (CCFTP) was held in the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade with the participation of representatives of ministries and agencies, private sector and international organizations.

Head of the Committee – Minister of Economic Development and Trade, distinguished Nematullo Hikmatullozoda noted that the main purpose of establishing the CCFTP is to solve the existing issues of the Private Sector and by discussing and dealing with the issues that are described during the meeting would directly accelerate the implementation of the strategic documents and further develop the economy of the country.

In order to implement the instructions of the Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, H. E. Emomali Rahmon, the issues of the textile and clothing sectors, tax preferences for the export and import of the mentioned sectors’ products, acknowledgment of the certificates of the Republic of Tajikistan in other countries, importers’ challenges and monitoring of the implementation of the 2018 protocol instructions of the CCFTP were discussed during the meeting. Moreover, the new Members from the number of the representatives of the private sector were introduced to the CCFTP.

The meeting provided a free dialogue between public and private sector representatives, during which proposals from the private sector were submitted to public sector representatives for revision.

By the end of the meeting, detailed instructions on solving the existing problems of the private sector were given for revision and implementation of the relevant CCFTP Members.

 

On 22 May 2019 Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Trinidad and Tobago was held in the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland. The official delegation headed by the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin participated and presented Tajikistan’s position in the event.

The main purpose of participation of the Tajikistan’s delegation in the TPR of Trinidad and Tobago was introduction to the process and order of conducting this event, exchange of experience and holding discussions related to the conducting of the First TPR of the Republic of Tajikistan in the WTO with the focal points of the Organization.

It should be noted that on the basis of the instruction of the Founder of Peace and National Unity – Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, H. E. Emomali Rahmon the First TPR of Tajikistan is planned to be held in April 2020 and in order to conduct this event on high level the relevant Action plan was validated by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.

In this order, with a view of preparing the TPR report of the Republic of Tajikistan, participation of the official delegation of the country in the TPR of Trinidad and Tobago in the WTO is highly important.

 

         On 21 May 2019 a meeting of the official delegation of the Republic of Tajikistan headed by the First Deputy Minister of the Economic Development and Trade Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin with participation of the First Deputy Head of the Customs Services Mr. Tursunzoda Azim Haydar and the Senior Specialist of the Planning and Reforms Department of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Umed Mirzoev with the Director of the International Trade Centre Ms. Arancha Gozalez was held in Geneva, Switzerland. During the meeting bilateral and multilateral cooperation of the parties were discussed.
    Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin has expressed gratitude to the ITC for the mutually beneficial cooperation and introduced the achievements of the Republic of Tajikistan in the framework of implementation of the strategic documents’ goals and priorities including the participation of Tajikistan in the World Trade Organization, export development, acceleration of the diversification of the export-oriented products and trade facilitation.
    It was noted that as a result of the taken actions the share of the foreign trade turnover increased from 20% in 2015 to 25.3% in 2018 and the number of trading partners increased from 90 to 110 countries, export diversification increased from 150 to approximately 480 products.
    ITC has highly appreciated the accomplishments of the Republic of Tajikistan in trade facilitation and active participation in WTO works and declared its readiness for increasing the assistance and technical support for further development of the economy of the Republic of Tajikistan.

On April 26, 2019, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan has officially launched a Tajikistan Trade Portal, which was developed by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and International Trade Centre with financial support of the Government of Switzerland and other development partners, namely the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the United Nations Development Programme. The event took place at the “HYATT Regency” Hotel with the participation of representatives of ministries and agencies, commercial organizations, public associations, international financial organizations and development partners, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps of foreign countries in Dushanbe.

In the opening speech by Mr. Zavqizoda Zavqi Amin, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, it was noted that the Tajikistan Trade Portal was established in order to fulfill the orders and instructions of the Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan H. E. Emomali Rahmon to strengthen export potential and facilitate trade procedures.

Tajikistan Trade Portal is the first experience and tool in the country's foreign trade activity, which provides information to domestic and foreign entrepreneurs and other stakeholders on import, export and transit procedures of 39 product groups, which is equivalent to 1500 goods and products.
During the event, a video and presentation of the Tajikistan Trade Portal was presented to participants. Meanwhile, Mr. Zavqizoda Z. A. and representatives of the development partners in the Republic of Tajikistan, including the Swiss Cooperation Office in Tajikistan/SECO, the International Trade Centre, the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe, and the United Nations Development Program participated in the high-level panel discussion on the subject of “Digitalisation and trade facilitation for effective trade governance”.
At the end of the event, the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade officially launched Tajikistan Trade Portal and announced its full accessibility to the public.