There will be no EU-Australia trade deal following the breakdown of talks in Japan at the weekend.

Following progress in discussions between officials, there was an expectation that the deal would be wrapped up in the margins of the G7 Trade Ministers’ summit in Japan over the weekend.

However, when the Australian and EU negotiators, led by Minister Don Farrell and EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, landed in Japan, things quickly unravelled.

In the blame game that followed, each side blames the other for the breakdown.

The EU say they travelled to Japan in good faith with a full team, but “the Australian side retabled agricultural offers that did not reflect recent negotiations and the process between senior officials”.

Australia’s Agriculture Minister Murray Watt hit back, saying that “Australia could make some concessions, but the EU had not budged significantly from the offer it put forward three months ago”.

The sticking point in closing the deal is the level of access the EU will give to Australia for beef and sheep meat products.

After their successful negotiation with the UK, Australia basically expected much greater access to EU markets than the EU were prepared to give.

The negotiation, which has been ongoing since June 2018, now looks like it will be stalled for some time, despite the ambition stated by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address in September, to have it wrapped up by the end of this year.

There will be EU elections in May 2024, followed by the appointment of a new Commission in the latter part of next year.

Australian elections are scheduled for 2025, so it could be 2026 when negations resume again.