China-Unfair trading allegations.

CHINA has been accused of hypocrisy and "pure blackmail" in its trade negotiations with Australia.

The Asian superpower has indicated it will not negotiate market access for our produce until Australia grants market access to its apples, well-placed sources say.

This requires Australia to recognise China has "area freedom" (growing regions free of pests which occur elsewhere in the country) despite the fact that China has not accepted Australia has pest-free areas.

The Federal Government says it will continue to assess import applications on the basis of science.

A well-placed source said a meeting of government, industry and exporters held in Sydney last week was told China would make no progress on (market access for Australian) product until their apples had access to Australia.

Merrigum orchardist and Fire Blight Taskforce chairman, John Corboy, said Australia continued to miss the point when negotiating with other countries.

"If that’s what China has said, it’s pure blackmail and it highlights the government’s naivety - these things are about trade as well (rather than science or protocol)," Mr Corboy said.

Australian Horticultural Exporters Association deputy chairman David Minnis said Chinese representatives had also refused to hold bilateral talks to process Australian market access applications.

The Weekly Times understands China has "stopped" work on assessing the import risks for Australian table grapes, summerfruit, apples and cherries, in breach of an earlier agreement.

Apple and Pear Australia general manager Tony Russell said China’s actions were "hypocritical".

"Clearly, there is some lack of recognition (of our pest free areas)," Mr Russell said.

"Other countries get away with it and we just do it by the book, and we’re losing."

In a written statement, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said Australia "will continue to assess proposed imports according to science-based analyses".

"Australia and China have agreed to (look at) several access requests concurrently for like commodities," the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman denied Australian market applications would not advance until China had approval for its apples, but refused to discuss the issue.