ISLAMABAD, April 26: Pakistan and Australia will have to work together for the early completion of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). This was stated by Australian High Commission Ms Zorica McCarthy at a two-day seminar on WTO issues here on Tuesday. The seminar was organized by the WTO wing of the ministry of commerce in collaboration with the Australian High Commissioner.

The high commissioner said both the countries had the points of convergence and divergence on various issues in the WTO.

She said it was extremely important for us to work together to keep up the momentum of the progress achieved at Doha Ministerial, which was vital for the success of the Hong Kong Ministerial scheduled to be held in December 2005.

The high commissioner said this exchange of ideas would provide an opportunity to understand each other’s position in the context of the ongoing negotiation on various issues in the WTO and possibility of future cooperation.

The seminar was addressed by Remo Moretta, a senior trade negotiator in the ministry of foreign affairs and trade, Australia. Mr Moretta has been a lead negotiator in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) concluded between Australia and the US.

The focus of the seminar was on the current negotiations in the WTO with specific reference to the Agreement on Agriculture, Non-Agriculture Market Access, General Agreement on Trade in Services and the Free Trade Agreements.