Akira Amari, Japanese minister in charge of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks, said Tuesday that Japan and the United States may not announce a broad bilateral agreement trade pact when the two countries' leaders meet in Tokyo on Thursday, local media reported.
Though the two sides have been making efforts to reach that goal for a long time, "there is still a considerable distance," Amari told reporters.
According to negotiation sources, the main sticking points are the tariffs on five farm product categories on Japan side and market access of automobiles on U.S. side.
Tokyo is considering cutting tariffs on beef imports from the United States to around 15 percent from the current 38.5 percent, but Washington is calling on Tokyo to lower its tariffs to fewer than 10 percent, said Japan Times. Washington, on the other side, wants to retain its auto tariffs as long as possible.
At a ministerial session held in December 2013 in Singapore, the 12 countries participating in the TPP negotiations missed the initial goal of striking a deal within 2013. The following ministerial meeting held in the same country in February also ended with no agreement.