Wednesday through Friday of this week, more working-level meetings on market access between the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiating teams from the United States and Japan took place in Washington, D.C. Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler also met with Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Oe to continue their bilateral market access discussions.

Earlier in the week, Australian Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb was in Tokyo for two days of negotiations with Japan on an economic partnership agreement. In recent weeks Robb has suggested that Australia is extremely close to becoming the first major agricultural nation to finalize such an agreement with Japan.