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A draft Cabinet of Ministers regulation that would formalise how Uzbekistan imposes, adjusts and removes seasonal customs duties on agricultural imports has run into sharp criticism from business leaders, who warn that the mechanism as written could push up food prices for millions of consumers, harm domestic processors and rest on shaky legal foundations.
The Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade presented the proposal at an October 27 session of the Public Council for Entrepreneurship Support under the President. The draft sets out a procedure under which the Ministry of Agriculture could initiate changes to import duty rates — upward or downward — based on petitions from consumers, domestic producers or industry associations, or on the results of its own quarterly market analysis. The Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade would then have five days to request data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Competition Development and Consumer Rights Protection Committee. After a ten-day analysis, the ministry would submit a conclusion to the inter-agency commission responsible for WTO affairs. Seasonal duties would replace standard tariff rates for a maximum of six months.
Who Actually Benefits?
Zafar Hashimov, founder of the Korzinka supermarket chain and chairman of the Trade and Services Association, said he supported the general concept but argued the draft offered consumers too little protection. His central challenge was direct: raising import duties might shield farmers on paper while the real gains flow to intermediaries and wholesalers rather than to the growers the policy is meant to help.
“We can make a decision under the pretext of supporting farmers, but the additional costs will be borne by consumers, while the benefit goes to middlemen, wholesalers or retail chains. The benefit may never reach the farmer at all,”
he said.
Hashimov also questioned how the draft measures domestic supply adequacy. Harvest and warehouse figures, he argued, do not capture what actually reaches consumers at acceptable prices and quality. He illustrated the point with cabbage: a farmer in Surkhandarya region might be unable to sell at 1,000 soums per kilogram while the same product fetches 5,000 soums in Tashkent — a gap he attributed largely to inadequate storage and logistics infrastructure rather than any shortage of production. Market sufficiency, he argued, should be measured by what quality product reaches the buyer at an affordable price, not by what is harvested in the field.
He called for a mandatory assessment of the impact on retail prices, food inflation and household purchasing power before any duty increase, with the results published for public scrutiny. Low-income families, who spend a disproportionate share of income on food, would be most exposed to any price rise, he noted. To evaluate whether a measure had worked, he proposed tracking three indicators: changes in the actual farmgate price and farmer income; changes in retail prices for consumers; and the effect on the volume and availability of goods in the domestic market.
Importers, Processors and the Legal Question
Hashimov raised a separate concern about importers who had already signed contracts, paid for goods and dispatched shipments before a duty change was announced. Under the draft’s current timeline, such traders could face unexpected costs with no transitional protection. He proposed a minimum 30-calendar-day notice period before any new seasonal duty takes effect, and a transitional mechanism for goods already in transit or covered by existing contracts. He also warned that uncertainty about future rates could prompt suppliers to cut imports pre-emptively, creating shortages and price spikes before any duty had even been imposed.
On the question of removing duties, Hashimov cautioned that the six-month maximum term could become a de facto floor. “We often see duties introduced quickly and removed very slowly. If one is set for six months, there is a risk it will run the full six months even if the product has disappeared from the market,” he said. He proposed specific market indicators that would trigger an automatic review, backed by a rapid data-collection mechanism.
Sardor Abbaskhanov, head of the Association of Fruit and Vegetable Processors and Exporters, warned that the draft overlooked the processing sector entirely. Processors buy raw materials at their cheapest — during the harvest peak — to dry, freeze, can or concentrate them. Raising import duties at precisely that moment would increase input costs and erode the competitiveness of finished goods. If domestic processors faced higher raw-material prices while foreign suppliers of finished concentrates continued to import without equivalent cost increases, local manufacturers could lose market share to imports, he argued. He called for investment in agricultural productivity, orchard renewal and modern varieties rather than relying solely on tariff barriers.
Council member Saidvali Nasretdinov proposed tariff-rate quotas as an alternative: a set volume of imports would enter at a lower rate, with the higher seasonal duty applying only to quantities above the quota. This, he said, would allow processors to secure necessary raw materials while still protecting domestic growers. He also called for a unified digital market-monitoring system to reduce the role of discretion in decision-making, and suggested cutting the review timeline from ten to fifteen days down to three to five, given that prices for perishable produce can shift daily. He further proposed that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and agribusiness associations be given voting seats on the inter-agency commission, and that an annual calendar of potential seasonal-duty periods be published in advance.
A representative of the Business Ombudsman’s office raised a constitutional and statutory objection. The draft envisages that the inter-agency commission would adopt duty-rate changes by protocol — a document that, the representative argued, does not qualify as a normative legal act under Uzbek law. Under Article 289 of the Customs Code, tariff rates are set by the President. Delegating that power to a commission through a protocol, the representative said, requires additional legal analysis and alignment with existing norms, including Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 339 of 28 May 2020.
The ministry’s representative acknowledged several of the objections. On the consumer-price assessment, the response was unambiguous: “We accept this proposal. Before any duty increase, the impact on consumer prices will be assessed. We will include this in the draft. There are no objections.” On the adequacy-of-supply criteria, the representative noted that the relevant authority rests with the Ministry of Agriculture but said the drafters were open to additional proposals to ensure the mechanism draws on reliable, current data.
The session also revealed that ministry officials and some council members appeared to be working from different versions of the document; the ministry’s representative noted that the updated draft runs to 33 clauses and that some earlier comments had already been incorporated. The session chair called for the document to be discussed directly with entrepreneurs, producers and other market participants. The council concluded by recommending that the draft be revised in light of the objections raised and resubmitted for a further round of review.
The legal basis for seasonal duties already exists: Article 290 of the Customs Code permits their use for the rapid regulation of imports and exports, with standard tariff rates suspended for the duration. The draft under discussion does not create a new type of duty but proposes the administrative procedure for deciding when and how to use the existing instrument. At the same session, the council also considered a separate proposal not to extend zero import duties on nine product categories including dairy, fruit and pasta; members warned of potential price rises and insufficient economic justification, and that proposal was also sent back for revision.