Australian and European officials are scrambling to bridge the gap for an elusive free trade agreement as diplomatic heavyweights prepare a meeting to seal the deal.
Plans are being drawn up for Trade Minister Don Farrell to meet with his European counterpart Maros Sefcovic, likely in Europe, before European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen travels to Australia at the end of February or start of March.
The president's visit could be viewed as a good omen after she travelled to India to sign a free trade agreement in mid-January, sealing a long-awaited deal between Europe and the world's most populous state.
Senator Farrell was scheduled to meet with Mr Sefcovic last Friday before the meeting was postponed.
The final hurdles include quotas for the amount of beef and sheep Australian exporters can ship into Europe, with Canberra pushing for more than what's been offered.
However, the conditions under which the meat can be exported have also proved contentious, with concerns Australian producers can't meet the stringent requirements, which would render any increased quota moot.
European conditions span deforestation regulations for farms, hormone-free growth and transport requirements.
For example, Canada used only a tiny fraction of its allocated 65,000 tonnes of tariff-free beef in recent years due to local farming and packaging practices, such as the use of hormones and how meat is sanitised, failing to meet European standards.
"As we have said consistently, a deal with the EU must include new, commercially meaningful access for Australian agriculture, including beef and sheep meat," a spokesperson for Senator Farrell told AAP.
European farmers are also wary of the compounding impact of free trade agreements being signed with South American nations as part of the Mercosur agreement, and now with India as Brussels searches for a resolution with Australia.
Australian producers are pushing for higher quotas for beef and sheep while European farmers want them stripped back.
Details of the offered quotas haven't been made public.
Geographic indicators - when Australian producers use names of foods that come from specific regions, such as prosecco and feta - have also been a sticking point as Europe aims to protect the naming rights of products.
If beef and sheep quotas are sorted, the final negotiations over naming rights would then need to be finalised, but negotiators are confident of compromises here to get the agreement over the line.
It's believed Australia would agree to a grandfathering clause, so producers already using the names could continue to do so.
This is in line with similar provisions in other trade pacts Europe has signed with Canada and New Zealand.
Canadian producers need to add qualifiers to certain products, such as "Feta-like" when selling the cheese, as some names were grandfathered.
New Zealand agreed to a phase-out of terms like Feta and Prosecco but there is a grandfathered exemption for Parmesan and Gruyere for some producers.
