Australia and Japan have finally reached an agreement on how to go about the exchange of their respective agricultural products as negotiations for a bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries continued.

A report by Japan Times said that Japan will get to enjoy high tariffs on imports of some of its most "sensitive" farm goods in exchange for receiving a certain amount of those products from Australia at low customs duties.

Essentially, the agreement sealed over the weekend will allow the establishment of low-tariff quotas for Australian beef and dairy exports to Japan. Once quotas are exceeded, only then will Japan's high duties be imposed.

However, rice remained excluded from the new two-stage tariff system.

With the recent breakthrough in the negotiations, both countries now expect to end and accomplish an FTA this summer.

The countries' FTA has been on the negotiating table since 2007, but continued to be stalled as the two nations cannot reach an acceptable agreement relative to their respective agricultural produce. Japan had continuously refused to eliminate tariffs on beef, wheat, dairy products and sugar. Australia is a major food exporter. Beef is its most valuable export. Japan's tariff for beef is 38.5 per cent.

But when Japan formally announced in March it will join the talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, Australia took a major jump to compromise with the other Asian country presumably to be able to improve farm exports to Japan before the effectivity of the new multilateral trade accord. Australia is already a member of the U.S-led TPP.