AgForce Queensland has called on the Palaszczuk Government to show their hand and back the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

AgForce General-President Grant Maudsley said Queensland rural and regional communities were among the biggest beneficiaries of the agreement to open up agricultural trade to China.

"Queensland is home to half of Australia's cattle herd and produces a significant grain yield each year, so this deal is important for rural and regional Queensland," Mr Maudsley said.

"The Queensland Government needs to back rural and regional Queensland and tell their Labor colleagues in Canberra to ignore this union-led scare campaign."

Mr Maudsley said that if the Federal Parliament fails to ratify the China-Australia FTA this year it will mean that farmers and regional communities will miss out on two rounds of tariff cuts, setting Australian agriculture back $300 million in 2016.

"Almost half of that benefit will be lost to the red meat and grains sector, which are so vital for Queensland's economy," he said.

"This agreement is being discussed at a Federal level, but the real losers will be local farmers and local communities if this agreement is scuttled by a trade union playing politics.

"If ratified the agreement with China would deliver more jobs and opportunities right through the agricultural supply chain, including for farmers and the communities they support."

Mr Maudsley said AgForce Queensland had agreed to back the National Farmers' Federation, and a growing number of other industries, pushing for ChAFTA to be ratified this calendar year.

According to the NFF, agricultural trade and international markets generate $42.4 billion per annum for the Australian economy, with $9 billion in earnings from China alone.

www.Farmersforfreetrade.org.au will allow the community, corporate entities and farmers to make a contribution to a broader China-Australia FTA campaign.

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