The European Union will voice its concerns over China’s exchange rate policy directly to the country’s leadership this week.

In a sign of growing confidence among the members of the EU’s single currency, the eurozone is dispatching a high-level delegation for the first time to discuss macroeconomic issues with one of its main trading partners.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg Prime Minister and chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, will be accompanied by Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank President, and JoaquÍn Almunia, the European Economics Commissioner.

On Wednesday and Thursday, they will meet Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Prime Minister, Xie Xuren, the Finance Minister, and Zhou Xiao-chuan, the Central Bank Governor.

The unprecedented visit reflects growing demands for China to move more quickly towards a normal exchange rate and to allow the yuan to appreciate at a faster pace. Although it has risen by about 5 per cent against the dollar this year, the yuan has weakened by almost 7 per cent versus the euro, raising the cost of European exports. European policy-makers are reluctant to put a figure on the appreciation that they would like to see, but Mr Juncker indicated recently that the yuan was undervalued by as much as 25 per cent.

In an interview about his forthcoming trip, he said that the aim was not only to press for a speeding up of the yuan’s revaluation, but also to understand the prospects of what is now the fourth-largest economy in the world.

“We Europeans want a regular, structured, macroeconomic dialogue with China, which will not just be about the evolution of the Chinese currency,” Mr Juncker said. “I really want to have a quiet debate with our Chinese colleagues about the situation of international currency questions – and that is best done with direct talks.”

The meetings will take place as the EU’s trade deficit with China continues to widen. Official EU figures show that the 13-strong eurozone had a trade surplus after the first nine months of the year of €23 billion (£16.5 billion), compared with a deficit of similar size the previous year.

However, it had a trade deficit with China between January and August of €70 billion, compared with €56 billion during the same period last year.

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