Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says Canada continues to be a force at the bargaining table for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

He was responding the US notion that Canada was waiting for the other 11 countries to submit their proposals before submitting an offer.

Ritz notes that it's very important for Canada to be part of this agreement.

"It's not that there's new access tied into TPP, it's to maintain the flows that we have and certainly everyone agrees that Japan is the crown jewel of this particular agreement," he said. "It still comes down to the fact that the Americans have to be able to sign this deal at the end of the day. We've seen the legislation they put forward on TPA (trade promotion authority), there's a lot of off-ramps there that are brand new that concern major players like Japan and Canada. At the end of the day, can they actually consummate the deal."

Ritz says Canada will continue to work directly with Japan, if the TPP stalls at the hands of the Americans.

The countries involved in the TPP trade talks include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.