While President Barack Obama has indicated that he would press for congressional approval for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) renewal as an aid in current United States trade agreement negotiations, House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D – Michigan) has stressed the need to continue to focus wholly on those negotiations.

Negotiators from the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) member countries are in Washington this week to move this landmark agreement closer to completion. We are almost there – you could say we are in the “red-zone” of the negotiations. Let’s hope the negotiators can do what the Redskins couldn’t – and put some points on the board.  

During a hearing Tuesday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was questioned at what point does the U.S. decide to conclude the Trans Pacific Partnership talks without Japan because of its insistence on maintaining its desire to exclude sacred commodities. Vilsack replied he still believes there is a “pathway to a solid, quality high standards agreement that includes Japan.”

We, the Ministers and Heads of Delegation for Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam have completed our three-day ministerial meeting to lay the groundwork for the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations.  Our meeting followed a week of officials’ level discussions in Canberra, from 19-24 October 2014.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) wants assurances that a Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal will not push up medicine prices. Federal Trade Minister Andrew Robb is hosting talks with 11 counterparts in Sydney this weekend, as progress towards a multi-lateral trade deal inches closer. If it is signed, the TPP agreement would cover 40 per cent of the global economy, and include countries like the United States, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, Chile and Australia.

The trade minister, Andrew Robb, says the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement is starting to take shape and should be concluded by year’s end. The deal would send a signal about the importance of the Asia-Pacific region, especially during a time of economic and geopolitical instability, Robb told ministers from 12 nations involved in negotiating the pact in Sydney on Saturday. The deal is set to cover 40% of the global economy.

This weekend, trade ministers from the 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement will gather in Australia for yet another round of high-level talks.

(Reuters) - Progress in U.S. talks with Japan towards a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact is encouraging, but difficult issues remain, the acting deputy U.S. trade representative said on Wednesday. Hopes of sealing the deal this year took a blow last month, when talks between the two nations seen as key to concluding the ambitious 12-nation trade pact hit a snag, with each side blaming the other for a stalemate over farm exports.

Prime Minister John Key expects the US government to put more emphasis on concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade and investment agreement once it gets past its mid-term Congressional elections in November. Negotiations between the 12 nations, including New Zealand, have stalled with the US and Japan dragging their heels on the deal.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s appointment of Koya Nishikawa as the new Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is a big plus for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Nishikawa is an executive of the so-called ‘agricultural tribe’ (norin zoku) in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). While this suggests to some that he will hold out to the last on the issue of opening Japan’s agricultural markets, Nishikawa may not act as expected.