TOKYO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday that Japan and the European Union will put off reaching agreement on a bilateral free trade pact to next year, dropping an earlier plan to strike a deal within the year.
The Japanese foreign minister said the two sides are close to reaching a broad agreement on the free trade pact, though there are still some points that need to be discussed.
"We've decided it can't be helped that the negotiations will carry over to next year," said Kishida after telephone talks with EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom, adding that talks will be resumed next month so as not to "lose the momentum."
The Japan-EU free trade talks, launched in April 2013, had missed an initial goal of reaching a deal by the end of 2015, before being put off again to 2017 due to difficulties in tariff negotiations on farm products, processed foods and automobiles.
The Japanese side has been seeking to remove tariffs imposed by the EU on Japanese cars and electronics, while the EU, for its part, wants Japan to scrap or lower its duties on agricultural products such as cheese, wine and pork.
The deal is of more importance now than ever to Japan, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as soon as he takes office.
Japan has hoped a free trade pact with the EU would help drive Trump back to the TPP or serve to make up for some loss caused by the failure of the TPP.
Japan is the EU's seventh largest overall trading partner, while the EU is Japan's third largest trading partner after China and the U.S.
Total trade between Japan and the EU was approximately 16.6 trillion yen (around 140.5 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Japanese government.
