ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, appreciated Pakistan’s constructive role in moving the stalled negotiations process forward.

The WTO director general was talking to Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan who met him in Geneva at the sidelines of the G-20 ministerial meeting. According to an official announcement issued here on Friday, Mr Lamy informed the commerce minister of the recent progress in market access issues and other important areas.

However, he made it clear that despite some movement there is still a wide gap among various parties.

“Even if the Hong Kong ministerial meeting succeeds in achieving substantial results in agriculture and industrial goods, it would need at least one year to finalize the remaining work, enabling this round to be completed by the end of 2006,” he said.

The commerce minister while commenting on his country’s position stressed on the importance of ambitious results on tariff reduction in industrial goods.

He explained Pakistan’s proposal, which he felt represented a possible solution to the key issues. Mr Khan also briefed Mr Lamy of Pakistan’s interest in the areas of agriculture, services and rules.

He specially noted Pakistan’s interest in having provisions of anti-dumping agreement revised with a view to restricting its misuse.