Robb hopeful for TPP talks in Singapore

Trade Minister Andrew Robb believes there will be progress on talks around the Trans-Pacific Partnership when he visits Singapore next week.

"We really are at the very advanced stage, but like most agreements, the hard yards are in the last five minutes," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Negotiations on the proposed trade deal have been underway for years since talks began in 2006 between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.

But since then Australia, the US, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam have joined negotiations for an ambitious expanded deal.

Mr Robb said some nations were holding back, but he anticipated seeing "the colour of their money" during the talks in Singapore.

Australia needed a significant market-access offering to make the deal worth it, he added, but if one was made negotiations could move quickly.

Mr Robb said the TPP would not be possible without the involvement of the US, where there is some disagreement in Congress over the benefit of the deal.

"At the end of the day, I still think that it will be tight but I think it will still get through in the US," he said.