Beneath the slick political spin and rosy forecasts about the proposed Australia-China free-trade agreement (FTA) lurks a more complex, less optimistic reality. Negotiating the deal - which official forecasts say is worth some A$24.4 billion ($146 billion) to Australia and A$86.9 billion to China - is no easy matter, and the frustration is beginning to show. Negotiations for the agreement began almost a year ago, but according to Mark Vaile, Australia's deputy prime minister and minister for trade, the Chinese are not pulling their weight. In an interview with the Australian Financial Review last week, Mr Vaile said that whenever he met Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai or the chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, Ma Kai , he complained that their negotiators were not 'participating in the spirit' in which the talks were launched last July. At the heart of Mr Vaile's concerns is that the Chinese are refusing to commit to talks about the agreement covering all products and all sectors. According to the Australian Financial Review, the Chinese are looking to exclude beef and wheat - two of Australia's major industries - from the agreement, although the Howard government denies that this is the case. This rather downbeat assessment of the FTA talks is not the first to appear in the Australian media. The Australian Apec study centre at Melbourne's Monash University recently described just how much distance there was still to go along what it calls the 'winding road' of progress towards an agreement. A recent newsletter from the study centre observed that 'progress in negotiations is being made on goods but the same can't be said for services'. On one level, the newsletter says, 'China is actively pursuing its service liberalisation agenda ahead of WTO commitments; an example of this is opening up its banking sector. Yet on another level, the Chinese are looking towards a preferred FTA model the likes of which it forged with Asean that left out services for a later date'. And on agriculture, the study centre says, the Australians should note that 'China's recently concluded FTA with Chile excludes wool altogether' and 'it is possible that China might seek a precedent to exclude wool in subsequent FTAs such as [with] Australia'. That would create 'world war three' between the Australian government and the influential farming lobby, represented by the National Farmers' Federation. Federation president Peter Corrish said last week that Australian farmers would not accept any exemptions from agricultural liberalisation under the proposed agreement. While Premier Wen Jiabao , on his recent visit to Australia, urged an acceleration of the FTA talks, Canberra is still debating internally the best way forward. For example, Mr Vaile's desire to structure negotiations on the basis of a push for a comprehensive trade deal that would cover all products and all sectors, is not shared by some of his ministerial colleagues. Even those who are the keenest supporters of the agreement are becoming a little more circumspect. The chairman of the Australia-China Business Council, Kevin Hobgood-Brown, said recently he was 'confident at the end of two or three years if there's not enough on the table, [the Australian negotiators will] walk away'. It is far too early to cast a pall of gloom over the talks, but there are signs that it might prove tougher to make the deal a reality than some people had originally believed. Greg Barns is a political commentator in Australia and a former Australian government adviser