Trade Minister Andrew Robb says an Asia-Pacific free trade deal can be struck by the end of 2015.

Mr Robb will lead a business delegation to Canada and the United States over the coming week as talks continue on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The TPP involves 12 countries - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam - seeking to achieve a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott will discuss the TPP with US President Barack Obama during his first official visit to Washington DC next week.

Mr Robb said Australia's work in securing bilateral free trade deals with Japan and Korea had provided a "pathway" to securing the TPP.

"I think we can get the TPP next year," he told AAP on Thursday.

"It's a very complicated thing and I think we have probably negotiated 80 per cent.

"The last 20 per cent is largely market access and we've said all along unless there is a decent market access result, we are not interested."

The minister said he had been "getting a bit thin-lipped" going into the TPP talks in Singapore earlier this year, but they had achieved substantial progress particularly in the participation of Japan and the US.

Japan's FTA with Australia, which included historic concessions on agriculture, had "given them some confidence to go the next step to the TPP".

"They (the Japanese) have found the sun is still coming up in the morning and the industry has accepted it ... because the economy is adjusting slowly rather than `oomph'," Mr Robb said.

The Australia-Japan FTA could also put pressure on the US to conclude the TPP, he said, because American beef farmers' Australian competitors would have an edge in terms of market access to Japan from next year.

"They will be knocking on the White House door," Mr Robb said of the US farm lobby.

Mr Robb said he remained "enthusiastic" about multilateral deals through the World Trade Organisation.

The 12 countries of the TPP make up 40 per cent of the global economy.

Negotiators believe the biggest gains for Australia are likely to be in education, legal, financial, mining and agricultural services as well as electronic commerce.