Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has encouraged his colleagues in sugar-growing areas to see the Trans-Pacific Partnership as "the first major step" in a good deal for their constituents.
The partnership allows Australia to send additional sugar to the US, but well short of the amount the industry wanted.
Queensland Nationals MPs have threatened to cross the floor if the sector got a bad deal.
Mr Joyce says they should see the pact as a package with capacity for further trade in the future.
"I would never as a cabinet minister be asking people to cross the floor, that would obviously be oxymoronic to my position," he told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday night.
"But neither am I going to lecture to people, being someone who has crossed the floor 28 times myself.
"What I can say is this ... deal as a package is an incredibly good deal for Australia.
"And what I can say is that we are vastly further ahead under this deal with sugar than where we were."
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