akira amari will attend a meeting of trade ministers from 12 countries on saturday in beijing. the gathering will take place on the sidelines of the apec conference. amari told reporters that the u.s. has already said it will be hard to reach a broad agreement on the tpp at the talks in beijing. >> translator: it will be difficult to settle you aremaining issues at the upcoming talks. >> negotiators are trying to arrange a meeting of leaders from the 12 countries after the ministerial talks. amari says he expects such a summit will happen. >> translator: sharing the achievements of the talks so far among ministers and leaders of the participating countries would be an important step in the tpp negotiations. >> well the most recent meeting of the tpp ministers took place late last month in sydney. they say they made major progress during that meeting. >>> well in other trade news members of japan's diet have given the okay to an economic partnership agreement or epa with australia. it's japan's 14th such deal. australia will be japan's biggest epa partner in terms of trade value

japanese economic revitalization minister akira amari welcomed the slide in crude oil prices. >> translatorthere are concerns about the weakening trend in the yen, as it is pushing up the prices of imported goods. but if oil prices go lower, this will offset the impact, and that is a positive factor for the japanese economy. >> a japanese analyst says excess oil supplies could keep prices low into the first half of next year but prices may start to pick up in the second half. >> translator: if the glut in crude oil remains, it will have a negative impact on the development of new oil sources such as shale. so we have to bear in mind that prices could rise gradually in the second half of next year. >> okoshi said until now opec countries have effectively controlled prices, but he said that's set to change as u.s. oil production has a bigger influence on market prices. >>> stock prices rose this friday morning. investors are excited by the decline in crude oil prices. now, for more details on individual shares, let's go to ramin mellegard. he has a full wrap-up for us. hi there, ramin. what c

minister for the tpp talks akira amari said they are nearing the end of negotiations but some difficult hurdles remain. he said these are in areas where each country wants to tread carefully. he said that's why they can't set a deadline for reaching an accord. leaders of china and south korea have agreed on a trade pact that's been in the works for two years. this deal will eventually eliminate import tariffs on most products. chinese president xi jinping and south korean president park geun-hye met on the sidelines of the apec summit. south korean officials say the accord will abolish tariffs on 91% of chinese imports to their country within 20 years. they say china will eliminate tariffs on 85% of imports from south korea during the same time frame. they say the final deal will be signed early next year. china's state news agency xinhua called the pact a high level agreement that will profit both countries. >>> on the to the markets now. weak chinese inflation data today suggests the economy there is starting to cool off. but analysts say this raises hopes for more stimulus measures f