Japan and Australia on Tuesday resumed negotiations on a bilateral free-trade agreement that were suspended following the March 11 disasters.
Meeting in Canberra, delegates from the two countries started two days of talks that will cover tariffs, rules of origin and customs-related issues to free up bilateral trade. The previous round of talks was held in Tokyo in February.
For Japan, these are the first FTA talks with a country involved in the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative, negotiations for which Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda intends to join.