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(Reuters) - Japan and the United States have found "common ground" to forge a two-way trade deal, but may not be able to resolve remaining sticking points in time for a mid-May meeting of top negotiators seeking a broad regional deal, a senior Japanese official said.
Marathon talks during U.S. President Barack Obama's state visit to Tokyo last week yielded progress - hailed by the two sides as a "key milestone" - but the two sides stopped short of announcing a deal vital to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation bloc that would extend from Asia to Latin America.
The upbeat tone, however, was a contrast to the emphasis on "gaps" after previous rounds of talks on a bilateral deal that has been stalemated by differences over access to Japan's agriculture market and both countries' car markets.
"What Obama's visit produced after many lengthy negotiations was a common ground on which the two sides believe we can continue to work to find a mutually acceptable solution," the senior Japanese official told Reuters. He declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks.
"We no longer have to worry that the lack of a Japan-U.S. pathway is going to block negotiations with other countries. This is a very important landmark Obama was able to produce," he said. But he added he was "not optimistic" that Washington and Tokyo could work out remaining issues "in a month or two".
Negotiators from the 12 TPP countries are to meet in Vietnam in mid-May, followed by a gathering of Asia-Pacific trade ministers in China on May 17-18. Obama and Abe will likely meet next at an Asia-Pacific summit in China in November.
Both Obama and Abe have domestic constituencies ...continued...
View the original article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/27/us-japan-usa-trade-idUSBREA3P02J20140427
(Additional reporting by Krista Hughes in Washington; Editing by Kim Coghill)
