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RPT-UPDATE 2-UK's Cameron wants to double trade with China

Published 11/09/2010, 04:26 AM
Updated 11/09/2010, 04:28 AM

* UK PM pledges to double trade with China

* Cameron makes first visit to China since election win

* UK won't lecture China on human rights (Adds Cameron comments)

By Keith Weir

BEIJING, Nov 9, (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday he wanted to double bilateral trade with China to more than $100 billion (62 billion pounds) a year by 2015, as he visited Beijing on Tuesday at the head of a major trade mission.

Cameron, making his first official visit to China since taking office in May, said he would bring up human rights issues with China but that it wasn't Britain's role to lecture or hector China.

Some rights groups have accused Britain of soft-pedalling on sensitive political issues to avoid harming its trade prospects with the world's second-largest economy.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Cameron also called for progress on the Doha round of world trade talks. Cameron's 36-hour visit to China comes ahead of a G20 summit in South Korea later this week.

"Next year has to see the deal done, and that means action now," Cameron wrote of the stalled trade talks. Britain sees a trade deal as a way of kick-starting growth when budgets are tight and monetary policy options limited.

Cameron said he wanted British exports to China to account for $30 billion of that $100 billion goal by 2015.

Britain exported 7.7 billion pounds in goods and services to China in 2009, while imports were 25.4 billion pounds -- a yawning trade deficit with the world's second largest economy.

RIGHTS ON AGENDA

"We want a stronger economic and business relationship with China -- we are the fifth-largest economy in the world, but we have only 2 percent of China's imports," Cameron said in a round of interviews with British broadcasters after he arrived in Beijing.

"But our dialogue is mature enough that we cover all of these areas, including human rights," he added.

Britain is competing with other Western nations in seeking to sell more to China and its vast population.

Cameron was meeting Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday and is scheduled to have talks with President Hu Jintao on Wednesday before travelling on to the G20 summit.

Cameron is heading Britain's biggest ever trade delegation to China, more than 40 business leaders seeking deals to fill order books while the government cuts spending at home.

A number of relatively small deals have already been announced including measures to boost sales of Scotch whisky and allow the import of breeding pigs into China.

Cameron said he hoped deals worth billions of dollars would be signed during the visit.

He said British companies had also secured $5 billion worth of business as part of a deal signed by China with Airbus in France last week. Underlining the centrality of trade on the trip, Cameron's first stop in the Beijing area was a visit to a supermarket run by British retail company Tesco .

Tesco plans $3 billion of investment to build new shopping malls in China over the next 5 years. It competes with other international food retailers such as Carrefour and Wal-Mart.

Educational publisher Pearson also announced plans on Tuesday to open 50 new English language centres in China, creating up to 2,000 jobs.

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