Trade representatives from more than a dozen countries have flown into Australia to conduct highly secretive negotiations on a mega deal that will sideline the United States amid the ongoing economic fall-out from the US-China trade war.

All 10 ASEAN member states and their partners; China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India, will be locked in negotiations in Melbourne from Friday over an EU-style trade deal known as the pan-Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership [RCEP].

US-China trade tensions have been rising. Credit:AP

The 16 nations will be negotiating what Trade Minister Simon Birmingham calls "one of the most economically significant trade agreements in the world" after Prime Minister Scott Morrison used the G20 in Osaka to urge both the US and China to resolve their disputes to avoid global collateral damage.

China's Ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, escalated the conflict in Canberra on Wednesday, vowing his country would "fight to the end" in its $US250 billion trade war with President Donald Trump over intellectual property and manufacturing subsidies. Mr Trump and China's President, Xi Jinping, will dine together in Osaka on Saturday in a meeting that is expected to send global markets spinning.