China to ease import restrictions

The West Australian China has vowed to make it easier to import goods into its huge market as Beijing seeks to address controversial trade surpluses with its trading partners, a report said.

Beijing will "loosen its regulation of imports, cut import costs and make import financing easier for domestic companies", among other measures, said Chong Quan, a top trade

official, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Chong, who is the commerce ministry's deputy China International Trade Representative, added that the government will encourage imports from

nations with which it is running a trade surplus, the report said. China also will actively import energy, advanced technology and other equipment, Chong said at a trade forum in the

capital. The report did not mention any further details of measures China would take. China overtook Germany last year to become the world's top exporter. Its foreign exchange reserves

stood at $US2.45 trillion ($A2.68 trillion) at the end of June - also the largest in the world. China's export success has consistently drawn criticism from major trading partners such

as the United States, with which it runs a large trade surplus. Washington has long pushed China to import more foreign goods. Foreign pressure for a stronger Chinese currency has also

mounted, with critics including US lawmakers claiming the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 per cent, giving China's exporters an unfair advantage. The People's Bank of China

pledged in June to let the yuan trade more freely against the dollar, but the currency has changed less than 0.7 per cent since then. The yuan had been effectively pegged at about 6.8 to the

dollar from mid-2008, when the global financial crisis started to bite. GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR INBOX. Sign up for our emails