Booming iron ore prices have insulated Australia from the worst of trade tensions with China, but Beijing's hard ball tactics should accelerate the tapping of new and faster growing export markets across the region.

Leading economists say Australia cannot afford to become complacent about its role as a supplier of commodities to China, even as the rally in the iron ore price to $US167 a tonne from $US114 a tonne in late October has offset the hit from Beijing's targeting of barley, beef, wine and coal exports.