European automakers have scuppered plans to unveil a far reaching free trade agreement between Europe and South Korea that was to have been announced at the G20 meeting in London on Thursday.

The agreement would have been the EU’s first in Asia and its most ambitious ever in terms of the scope and value of goods and services involved. Officials had hoped to use it as a signal that the two sides remained committed to free trade at a time when the economic crisis is prodding governments toward protectionism.