Brussels: The European Union announced on Friday the suspension of trade negotiations with Australia due to the dispute that has generated Canberra’s decision to cancel an agreement with France on the supply of submarines to the oceanic nation, Radio Habana Cuba publishes.
The spokeswoman for the European Commission for trade affairs, Miriam García Ferrer, confirmed the decision without specifying details.
The EU and Australia had the 12th round of negotiations on a free trade agreement scheduled for this month, but it has been postponed until November, a European representative in Canberra told AFP.
Negotiations on the trade regime between the European bloc and Australia have lasted since 2018.
Australia had signed in 2016 a contract with the French Naval Group for the construction and delivery of 12 diesel-electric submarines.
The deal, estimated at about $ 66 billion, was canceled by Prime Minister Scott Morrison last month following the creation of a new regional security alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom, called AUKUS, which involves the supply of at least eight nuclear submarines to the Australian Navy.
The decision caused a diplomatic crisis with France, which accused the United States and Australia of disloyalty and having secretly prepared the new alliance, and also drew criticism from the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.