After 5 agonising years of talks, Australia and the European Union still haven’t been able to seal a free trade deal… For a hot minute it looked like the 2 sides might have been on the verge of a breakthrough – Trade Minister Don Farrell even left his family holiday to jet to Brussels for talks. But it was all for nothing – negotiations are now off for a least another month with the same sticking points getting in the way. Australia wants to get more of our beef, sugar and dairy into European markets. The Europeans want Aussie producers to give up labels like prosecco, feta and parmesan – they claim the terms should only be used by products from specific regions in Europe. Our farmers reckon they’d rather walk away than accept those conditions and want the government to hold out for a better deal. Australia’s been scrambling to secure new markets ever since relations with our major trading partner China started going downhill, so they’ll keep persisting with this one…