Australian Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has cooled on the prospects for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, conceding China is unlikely to sign up to the deal after meeting with senior officials in Beijing.

Mr Ciobo is a vocal supporter of the TPP continuing in some form despite US President Donald Trump's decision to abandon it shortly after he took office in January. The Australian government has been pushing for the remaining 11 members to try and salvage an agreement that took five years to negotiate, locking in robust standards on labour, intellectual property, food safety and the environment as well as tariff cuts. Mr Ciobo had previously suggested opening the TPP to countries like Indonesia and China, which had been left out of the initial agreement.

However, Beijing has long been suspicious of the trade deal, which was a key plank in the Obama administration's so-called "pivot" to Asia. China is promoting the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) instead, an initiative led by Southeast Asian countries to set up a trade deal with key partners in the region, including Australia.

China is highly unlikely to replace the USA in the Trans Pacific Partnership, says trade minister Steve Ciobo. Bloomberg

Mr Ciobo admitted on Monday "it's very unlikely that China would join the TPP."

"There's conversations that will happen in due course around what the future of the TPP might look like without the United States, and in fact whether or not there's enough consensus there for us to continue on with the agreement," he told CNBC in an interview from Beijing, according to the transcript.

"Australians certainly feel that there's a lot of value to RCEP," he said.

"We would like there to be a higher level of ambition in terms of RCEP, so a greater predisposition towards liberalisation around goods trade, services trade, and investment."