Uzbekistan Joins CIS Free Trade Zone

TASHKENT, December 28 (RIA Novosti) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov has ratified a protocol to join an agreement on free trade between former Soviet states, a presidential spokesman said Saturday.

The protocol was signed at a meeting of prime ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose association of former Soviet republics, in the Belarusian capital Minsk on May 31, 2013.

In line with the deal, approved by Uzbekistan’s lower house of parliament on November 29, and by the upper house December 13, disputable issues are resolved through bilateral talks.

Other members of the CIS free trade zone are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have signed the deal but not ratified it yet.

Commonwealth of Independent States

© RIA Novosti