The key facts

  • Upon WTO accession, the import duty on mobile devices will become zero — the agreement has already been reached in negotiations
  • Phones will become about 5% cheaper, budget revenues will fall by 300–400 billion soums, VAT will remain
  • From January to October 2026, 4.1 million devices were imported, customs payments grew 2.1-fold to 2 trillion soums

Phone duty to be zeroed out as part of WTO accession

The customs duty rate on the import of mobile devices will be reduced to 0% upon Uzbekistan's accession to the World Trade Organization. This was announced on November 11 at a press conference by the head of a department of the Customs Committee, Farkhod Olimjonov.

What has already been agreed and what it will change

According to Olimjonov, in the course of negotiations on WTO accession, Uzbekistan is agreeing alternative duty rates with other states for various categories of goods; for mobile devices, an agreement on a zero rate has already been reached. The official assessed the consequences as follows: if the budget currently receives 2 trillion soums from phone imports, after the zeroing-out revenues will fall by 300–400 billion soums, but devices will become about 5% cheaper for the population. At the same time, he emphasized that VAT will continue to be levied — the abolition of the duty does not mean a complete exemption of imports from taxes.

Context: growth of official imports

According to the Customs Committee, in the first ten months of 2026, 4.1 million mobile devices were officially imported into Uzbekistan — 1 million more than in the same period last year. Customs payments for their import grew 2.1-fold and reached 2 trillion soums. Official iPhone imports over this period exceeded 452 thousand devices, with payments amounting to 756.6 billion soums — 6.2 times more than the figure for January–October 2025.

Status of WTO accession

The zeroing-out of the rate is tied to WTO accession, the timing of which remains an open question. Uzbekistan submitted its membership application back in 1994, and active negotiations on the terms resumed in 2020. The process was planned to be completed by the organization's 14th Ministerial Conference in March 2026, but this did not happen: the country's representative at the negotiations, Azizbek Urunov, reported that a number of states are dragging out the review of documents, and at the end of last year he noted the risk of an 'unexpected slowdown' of the process. In May, a meeting with the president again confirmed the intention to join the WTO in 2026; by the beginning of the year, negotiations had been completed with 33 of the organization's 34 members.