The United States is stepping up efforts to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact soon, a move that also boosts hopes for a deal with Japan that would be necessary for the goal.
Unlike the situation some months ago, there has been much talk by U.S. government leaders and lawmakers as well as agricultural groups on how to strike a deal over the TPP initiative on such occasions as a chief negotiators' meeting that ended Sunday in New York.
"Various movements have emerged in the United States" recently, Japanese Ambassador to the United States Kenichiro Sasae told reporters in late January.