Japan, Australia start new FTA talks

TOKYO - Japan and Australia launched a new round of negotiations toward inking a bilateral free trade agreement Wednesday, local media reported.

The negotiation, the 16th round of its kind since it was launched in April 2007, has been proceeding slowly due to Japan's concerns about the agreement's impact on its agricultural industry.

Kyodo News reported that the focus this time was on what concessions Japan is prepared to make on liberalizing trade in farm products and Australia on investor protection.

Australia has been urging Japan to relax tariffs on farm products including beef, wheat, dairy products and sugar, while Japan has been calling on Australia to improve its mechanism for resolving disputes between companies and countries in which they invest, Kyodo said, citing sources familiar to the matter.

The negotiation is set to be concluded on Friday.