Australia's Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, and Thailand's Minister for Commerce, Dr Adisai Bodharamik, announced today in Doha that agreement had been reached on terms of reference, and work was underway on the joint scoping study on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Australia and Thailand.

The Ministers were meeting in the margins of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar.

The joint scoping study will explore ways in which an FTA could maximize the potential benefits of closer economic integration between Australia and Thailand.  It is expected to be completed by early next year.

The Ministers said that bilateral trade between Australia and Thailand was currently valued at more than A$4.7 billion but there was considerable potential for further growth in trade and investment.

 "The study will explore ways in which to strengthen bilateral trade and investment links, create strategic business alliances and to cooperate in building regional and world markets," said Mr Vaile and Dr Adisai.

"The joint study has been designed to be as broad as possible, reflecting our desire for any bilateral FTA to be comprehensive in scope, and to underpin our mutual support for the WTO multilateral trading system.

"Australia and Thailand work closely together in advancing our mutual trade interests in a range of fora, including the WTO, the Cairns Group, APEC and in the AFTA-CER process.  This strong, collaborative relationship will be further boosted by the work on the FTA scoping study," the Ministers stated.