Japan's minister in charge of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks said Friday he will meet with his U.S. counterpart in Washington next week as they accelerate efforts to resolve outstanding issues before the Japan-U.S. summit later this month.
Akira Amari and Michael Froman decided to hold talks again after they failed to move closer over key TPP issues in their 18-hour talks from Wednesday to Thursday in Tokyo.
The news comes after negotiation sources said Thursday that the United States has given up on demanding that Japan remove its 38.5 percent tariffs on beef in bilateral negotiations related to the 12-country Pacific free trade talks.