Canada and China plan to double bilateral trade by 2010 and narrow their trade imbalance, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said on Wednesday.

Premier Wen Jiabao (right) chats with his Canadian counterpart Jean Chretien in Beijing while attending an agreement signing ceremony October 22, 2003. [newsphoto.com.cn]

"We have tripled our trade in the last 10 years and we have agreed to have a goal of doubling until 2010," Chretien told reporters after meeting his Chinese counterpart, Premier Wen Jiabao, in Beijing.

"With an increase of almost 15 or 20 percent this year it is an objective that we can attain," he said.

China, not including Hong Kong, is Canada's third biggest trade partner after the United States and Japan.

Last year, bilateral trade hit C$19.9 billion, of which C$15.98 billion was imports by Canada, marking an increase of 25.6 percent from 2001, Canadian figures showed.

"The Prime Minister (Wen) recognized that we have to work on the gap of the sales and buying in Canada, but the level of trade has increased and he wants to close the gap of the surplus that they have," said Chretien, on his sixth visit to China as prime minister.

"And they will have to buy more from Canada or us buy less from them. We have increased the exports, but they have done better than us that way."

Imports from China in 2002 accounted for 4.6 percent of Canada's total, Canadian figures showed. Chretien said the hot topic of the value of China's currency, the yuan, did not come up in his discussions with Wen and that the yuan's value, pegged at about 8.3 to the U.S. dollar, was not an obstacle to trade. (US$1=$1.32 Canadian)

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