SYDNEY (Kyodo) Trade minister Banri Kaieda and his Australian counterpart, Craig Emerson, agreed Friday during their talks in Sydney to work on striking deals at an early date through ongoing thorny negotiations over a bilateral free-trade agreement.
At a joint press conference after their meeting, the ministers also recognized that the two countries are faced with "challenges to be overcome" and thus need to make more efforts in negotiations over the issue of eliminating tariffs on farm products, a sticking point in the bilateral talks.
During their meeting, the first bilateral trade ministerial talks since 2009, Emerson briefed Kaieda on the latest developments in negotiations involving Australia and eight other countries over a trans-Pacific free-trade agreement, according to Japanese officials.