Trade officials from Japan and the United States resumed talks Wednesday on greater market access for agricultural products and autos under the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative.

The fresh round of negotiations come after leaders failed to make progress on the TPP at an unrelated summit in November in Beijing, with Japan and the United States, the group's largest economies, struggling to see eye to eye in several areas.

Economic and fiscal policy minister Akira Amari said this month he hopes to hold a ministerial meeting by early spring to cut a deal given that the United States will enter campaign mode later this year toward the 2016 presidential election.