Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan and the EU's top trade official Valdis Dombrovskis spoke Friday as Canberra digested news that Italy banned a shipment of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines to Australia.

A European Commission spokeswoman said the video call was previously scheduled but "they did discuss the export authorisation mechanism" under which Italy acted.

The call came a day after Rome, with the commission's approval, blocked the export of 250,700 doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine meant for Australia.

Italy explained the ban as necessary due to a shortage of vaccines in virus-hit Europe and the lack of urgent need in relatively virus-free Australia.

Australia's government said the absence of that one shipment would not affect its rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine that started on Friday, though Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would ask Brussels to review the decision.

The commission spokeswoman told journalists that Dombrovskis explained to Tehan the EU's approach to vetting exports of doses of vaccines it has approved for use in the bloc.

"He also reassured that for those companies that are honouring their contract arrangement with the EU, there is no issue with the authorisations, including with Australia," she said.

Under the EU scheme, a company wanting to export doses out of the bloc needs to apply to the member state government to do so, which then turns to the commission to approve or deny its recommendation.

The Italian decision was the first time the mechanism was used to ban a shipment since it started operating at the end of January.

The European Commission has engaged in a public row with AstraZeneca over the company's failure to supply all the vaccine doses it promised the EU in the first three months of this year.

The Anglo-Swedish company is on track to provide only around 40% of the contracted doses to the EU, even as it fulfils its full deliveries to Britain, a former EU member.

The commission spokeswoman, Miriam Garcia Ferrer, said that between January 30 and March 1 the EU had approved 574 vaccine exports requests to 30 countries including Australia.

A commission spokesman, Eric Mamer, said the EU expects companies that have supplied vaccine deals with Brussels "to do their utmost to comply with the contracts with delivery contracts that they have with the member states".