European Union continues to be largest trading partner

15 Oct '08

2 min read

According to customs statistics released recently pertaining to the first nine months of 2008, the European Union continued to be China's largest trading partner.

China-EU bilateral trade value reached US $322.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25.9 percent , 12.1 and 8.1 percentage points higher than the growth rates of Sino-US and Sino-Japanese bilateral trade over the same period, respectively.

Over the same period United States continued to be China's second largest trading partner. Sino-US bilateral trade value amounted to $251.5 billion, up 13.8 percent, but down 1.8 percent from the increase of same time last year.

Of which, China's exports to the US were $189.1 billion, up 11.2 percent, but down 4.6 percentage points from growth rate of last year. China's imports from the US were $62.4 billion, up 22.1 percent, an increase of 7 percent over the same period last year.

Bilateral trade with Japan, China's third largest trading partner in the first nine months of 2008, fetched US $202.7 billion, an increase of 17.8 percent. Among them, China's exports to Japan were US $85.85 billion, an increase of 16 percent while China's imports from Japan were US $116.9 billion, an increase of 19.2 percent.

China's trade deficit with Japan stood at $31.05 billion, an increase of 29.1 percent over the same period of last year.

In addition, India took the tenth place among China's largest trading partners. In the first nine months, Sino-Indian bilateral trade touched $42.05 billion, an increase of 54.9 percent thereby ranking the first place in growth rate among China's top 10 largest trading partners.

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