Australia and the EU have failed to reach a final agreement on a free trade deal between the two countries, which has been negotiated for five years, the Financial Times reports.
According to Trade Minister of Australia Don Farrell, the two sides made no progress in the latest round of talks, but he hopes that a deal will be concluded in the future.
According to the Guardian, Australia and the EU each accused the other of being unwilling to compromise. The Australian agriculture minister, Murray Watt, said the EU had not offered enough access for beef, sheep, dairy and sugar exporters. “They’ve come back now with essentially the same offer, with a couple of tweaks,”said Minister Watt.
Watt also emphasized that the negotiations had been going on since 2018 because the EU took “a very strong stand” and was “a very protectionist market when it comes to agriculture”.
Nevertheless, the impasse on the sidelines of the G7 trade ministers’ meeting in Japan means that a deal is unlikely to be concluded before 2025, given the EU parliamentary elections in June 2024 and the federal elections in Australia in 2025.