BEIJING, Nov 22: China on Thursday called for the European Union to remove restrictions on high-tech exports into the Chinese market as a way of addressing the trade imbalance between the two sides.

Speaking ahead of next week’s annual Sino-EU summit, a government spokesman also said the Chinese trade surplus was not unusually large when compared against the overall size of its economy.

“We hope through bilateral coordination, especially by removing unreasonable barriers on the exports of high-tech products, China’s imports can be expanded,” commerce ministry spokesman Wang Xinpei said at a regular briefing.

Products that currently cannot be exported freely from the EU to China include some super-speed computers and ultra-precision machinery, a commerce ministry researcher told AFP.

According to its figures, the European Union ran a trade deficit of 128 billion euros ($175 billion) with China last year. The shortfall is likely to balloon to 170 billion euros this year on current trends.

The trade imbalance is likely to be a top agenda item next week as a high-powered EU delegation including European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso travel to Beijing for this year’s summit.

The delegates are expected to focus on the value of the yuan, which has declined against the euro in the past two years, making Chinese products cheaper in countries using the European currency.

“The proportion of China’s overall trade surplus in the country’s gross domestic product is still relatively low -- much lower than some developed countries,” said Wang.

Germany is an example of an economy where the proportion is higher than in China, according to the Chinese commerce ministry.—AFP