Many of Australia’s major exports can flow more freely into China, with the official signing of a new free trade agreement.

After years of negotiation and an equal amount of speculation, the terms of Australia’s business-boosting deal have been set in stone.

The Australian Government says 14 commercial agreements were included in the FTA, for combined projects which could be worth more than $20 billion.

Big winners are the mining industry, dairy farmers, winemakers and the transport and logistics sector tasked with moving it all.

Tariffs have been waived for a range of resources, with the 3 per cent coking coal tariff expected to be gone immediately and the 6 per cent tariff on thermal coal to be phased out in coming years.

The Australian dairy sector will see tariffs phased out by 2025.

Chinese president Xi Jinping welcomed the deal, which came following years of negotiation.

“As the Chinese saying goes it takes 10 years to sharpen a sword, so we are very glad to see that after nearly 10 years of negotiation our two sides have announced this substantive conclusion to the bilateral FTA negotiation,” he said.

“This will provide a bigger market, more favourable conditions and better institutional support for our cooperation.”

But Dr Geremie Barme, Chinese history professor at Australian National University, says the true implications of the deal will be known soon.

“One should be very cautious about this,” Dr Barme told the ABC.

“We hope it's as good as is foretold... we wait for serious economists and analysts to look into that mix of details to see what will be revealed.”