WHILE the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association is singing the praises of Australia's free-trade agreement with China, GrainGrowers manager of trade and market access Cheryl Kalisch Gordon is less enthusiastic.
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Ms Kalisch Gordon said that not all grains benefited under the agreement.
After 10 years of negotiations, Australian wheat remained subject to an out-of-quota tariff of 65 per cent, and within-quota tariff of 1 per cent, she said.
"Exports of canola will also continue to be subject to a tariff of 9 per cent, and maize exports have also been excluded from concessions under the deal," Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
But Ms Kalisch Gordon said that the Australian grains industry would benefit from immediate removal of the 3 per cent tariff on barley and 2 per cent tariff on sorghum.
The Northern seat of Lyons takes in much of Tasmania's rural area and Lyons Liberal MHR Eric Hutchinson welcomed the agreement as "great news for Tasmania".
"This agreement is truly unprecedented whether it be for agriculture, energy, manufacturing or infrastructure and all of those areas are strongly represented in Tasmania," Mr Hutchinson said.
The former Roberts wool marketing manager said that he was particularly pleased to see that a specific duty-free quota of 30,000 tonnes had been introduced for wool.
Milk processing giant Fonterra Australia said that expanding market access was "critically important" to the future profitability of the entire Australian dairy supply chain.
