Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told European business leaders on Tuesday that China worked hard to maintain a basic balance between imports and exports and that it did not seek an excessive surplus.

In a speech entitled "Enhance Cooperation to Make Win-win Progress" at the 2006 China-Europe business summit, Wen elaborated on China's policy on resolving the trade imbalance with the European Union (EU).

EU statistics showed that the block ran a deficit of 131.6 billion U.S. dollars in trade with China in 2005, said Wen, noting that a number of factors had contributed to the deficit.

"Ninety-five percent of the deficit occurred in processing trade and 81 percent was caused by foreign companies' investments in China," he said.

Wen said that the global relocation of industries had led to a significant change in the flow of international trade.

"In looking at China's surplus in its trade with the EU, to just apply the current rule of origin does not give one the complete and real picture of interests and balance in our trade," he added.

"China's policy is to maintain basic balance between import and export. It does not seek excessive surplus," the Premier stressed.

At present, China's overall trade surplus only accounts for 4.6 percent of its GDP, much lower than that of some European countries, such as Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and Ireland.

"China will endeavor to increase its imports from the EU," Wen said.

In the meantime, Wen said China hoped the EU would relax its restrictions on the export of high-tech and dual use products to China and make joint efforts to bring about a balance in China-EU trade.

The 2006 China-Europe business summit was held here on Tuesday, with some 500 senior business leaders attending to discuss strategies for boosting China-EU economic and technological cooperation.

Source: Xinhua