The trade minister, Andrew Robb, says the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement is starting to take shape and should be concluded by year’s end. The deal would send a signal about the importance of the Asia-Pacific region, especially during a time of economic and geopolitical instability, Robb told ministers from 12 nations involved in negotiating the pact in Sydney on Saturday. The deal is set to cover 40% of the global economy.

This weekend, trade ministers from the 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement will gather in Australia for yet another round of high-level talks.

(Reuters) - Progress in U.S. talks with Japan towards a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact is encouraging, but difficult issues remain, the acting deputy U.S. trade representative said on Wednesday. Hopes of sealing the deal this year took a blow last month, when talks between the two nations seen as key to concluding the ambitious 12-nation trade pact hit a snag, with each side blaming the other for a stalemate over farm exports.

Prime Minister John Key expects the US government to put more emphasis on concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade and investment agreement once it gets past its mid-term Congressional elections in November. Negotiations between the 12 nations, including New Zealand, have stalled with the US and Japan dragging their heels on the deal.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s appointment of Koya Nishikawa as the new Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is a big plus for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Nishikawa is an executive of the so-called ‘agricultural tribe’ (norin zoku) in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). While this suggests to some that he will hold out to the last on the issue of opening Japan’s agricultural markets, Nishikawa may not act as expected.

Real progress in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations has stalled until Japan and the United States reach some kind of basic trade agreement — which is still elusive even after numerous rounds of talks. The United States has been pressuring Japan to make concessions in key areas such as agriculture. It is well known that current TPP negotiations are running on two separate tracks: the plurilateral track in which all 12 countries are participating and the bilateral track which amounts to a series of bilateral deals being negotiated on the side.

Recently, on its website, the USTR has released a Summary of US objectives in the TPP negotiations

(Reuters) - South Korea will not be welcomed into a planned Pacific free-trade pact until all problems are resolved in carrying out an existing trade deal with the United States, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Two years after the agreement came into force, the United States was still trying to make sure promises to ease the path for U.S. exports into South Korea were fully met, the official said, pointing to problems with customs regulations and autos.

Trade ministers last week met in Singapore to discuss finer points of a potential Trans Pacific Partnership, though much work remains to be done before a final agreement is reached, the U.S. Grains Council says. Ministers from the 12 nations involved – United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – announced that they have achieved agreement on "landing zones" on nearly 20 of the 29 TPP chapters.

We, the Ministers and Heads of Delegation for Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam, have just completed a four-day Ministerial meeting in Singapore where we made further strides toward a final agreement.