Foreign Minister Penny Wong will host her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Wednesday amid hopes of a breakthrough on lingering high tariffs on beef, lobsters and wine.
Senator Wong is expected to raise the tariffs and trade barriers imposed by China against Australian producers when the pair meet for the sixth time in Canberra on Wednesday.
Mr Wang is set to meet with business leaders on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong will be pushing for trade tariffs to be removed. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
Beijing has signalled a willingness to lift punitive tariffs on Australian wine by the end of the month after an interim recommendation for its review into the measures found they should be scrapped.
But crippling impediments on Australian beef and lobster also remain in place.
It's unlikely there will be a concrete announcement on either but a pathway to the removal of the tariffs could be outlined, even if only in private, China expert Ben Herscovitch said.
"My hunch is there will probably be an announcement on wine duty in the coming weeks," he said.
"It's a really significant, high-profile visit and both sides want something significant to come out of it."
Wine producers are also cautiously optimistic about an outcome.
But there are calls for a support package for the industry, after Nationals Leader David Littleproud warned it could take time for producers to get back on their feet even if the tariffs are removed this month.
"This industry has gone through a lot and it needs a bit of help," he said.
His meetings with Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian had been productive and concerns about the impact of the trade barriers on local producers had been conveyed to Beijing, he said.
"In our culture, to turn the page you have to do something tactile and the ambassador has worked tirelessly in making sure that happened as he did with barley," Mr Littleproud said.
Senator Wong is also expected to raise human rights concerns and China's aggression in the region.
The case of Australian Yang Hengjun will also be high on the agenda, with Senator Wong set to raise opposition to the suspended death penalty handed down against the writer by a Chinese court.
Dr Yang faces life in prison after his two-year suspended death sentence following national security charges the writer and the Australian government have always denied.
But it was unlikely there would be any headway in the case as there was with detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei who was released by China last year given the writer's charges were on national security grounds, Dr Herscovitch said.