The governments of Japan and Singapore will begin a three-day meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday to put the finishing touches on a bilateral free-trade agreement, Japanese government sources said.
Success at the meeting will pave the way for the FTA to be signed by the end of the year, the sources said.
The FTA, likely to take effect in the spring, is expected to cover a wide spectrum of areas, including trade, collaboration in the financial and securities sectors, and harmonization of the two countries' certification and other systems.
Informal working-level talks this week in Tokyo centered around detailed negotiations on the FTA.
As a result, the two countries agreed to recognize each other's technical qualifications in areas related to communications equipment and household appliances, marking a big step forward toward concluding the FTA, the sources said.
However, the two countries still face some problems, including Japan's proposal to exclude Singapore-made petrochemical products from tariff elimination, the sources said.
While Singapore is reluctant to accept the proposal, it is expected to accept it based on a provision in the FTA that the agreement will be reviewed at some point after it goes into effect, the sources said.