Officials open talks on talks with China

New Zealand and Chinese officials will meet in Beijing today to nut out the negotiating schedule on the bilateral free trade deal.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade China Taskforce director Charles Finny said both countries had "heavy negotiating schedules" because of the raft of free trade deals with which they were involved.

"We want to get a feel for how far off they are getting a mandate ... so it will be a semi-substantive meeting," he said.

In trade speak, "modalities", or procedural issues, will dominate this first round of talks. But negotiators expect to hit the ground running when talks begin in earnest shortly after Chinese New Year.