A broad Pacific trade accord appears nowhere in sight after ministers from 12 countries failed to specify a timeline for striking a deal, despite the efforts of Japan and the United States to inject impetus by highlighting the progress they made on tariffs in bilateral talks last month.
The two-day "check-in" gathering, which wrapped up Tuesday in Singapore, was mainly aimed at assessing the extent of progress made by Tokyo and Washington during their marathon talks in April.
However, some negotiation sources from the other countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks said they did not see any drastic change in the Japanese and U.S. positions.