A bilateral trade agreement with China would boost Australia's gross domestic product by A$146bn ($114bn) over 20 years, according to a report due out today.

The Australia China Business Council's study was prepared by an independent economic consultancy but sponsored by Chinalco, the aluminium group trying to execute China's largest foreign investment with a US$19.5bn (€14bn, ￡12.4bn) injection into Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian miner.

The report comes as Canberra enters the final weeks of deliberations on whether to approve the Chinalco deal, which has raised concerns that a foreign state-backed enterprise would own a strategic stake in Australia's biggest natural resource assets. However, Canberra is mindful that blocking Chinalco could provoke a backlash from its biggest trading partner and a country that has underwritten its prosperity.