Austral Fisheries chief executive David Carter said the $2 billion national seafood industry was also keen to see reduced tariffs to help the sector compete globally.
Australia’s top two current premium food exports are abalone and lobster, and sales of tuna and prawns would rise sharply if a trade deal was finalised.
“This market has huge potential,” he said.
“Without too much work, and with the FTA providing stability, China could take 40 per cent of our seafood production from the current levels, which are about half of that. A successfully negotiated FTA would be gold for us.
“A zero tariff would be ideal for us, but anything better than what we have at the moment would be good.”
Australian Table Grape Association chief executive Jeff Scott said his industry had also pushed the government to have the average tariff of about 13 per cent on exports to China cut to a more reasonable level.
“The ultimate outcome would be to get to a tariff of zero. All of our horticultural products have a tariff on them,” he said.
“But our main competitors like Chile have a zero tariff, so we are constantly competing against them, not only on the volume they put into the market but also on price and the cost of production.
“We have a high-premium product, so we have a higher price, and then when you add the tariff on top of that, it really makes us (exporting) in some countries uncompetitive.”
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