Twelve Pacific Rim countries began the 19th round of negotiations Thursday in Brunei for creating a regional free trade pact, with Japan engaging in full-fledged talks on tariffs and other issues for the first time after joining last month.

Marking the start of the nine-day round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, a ministerial meeting opened in the morning as the countries sought to facilitate the talks toward their target of concluding a deal within this year.

While the negotiations extend to 21 fields, the latest round only deals with 10 of them, including intellectual property rights, state-owned enterprises and tariffs, according to Japanese officials.