The statistics released by a Taiwan economic department shows that the total trade volume across the Taiwan Straits reached 61.64 billion US dollars last year, an increase of 33.1 per cent over the previous year, accounting for 18 per cent of the total Taiwan foreign trade volume according to a Taiwan media report. That shows that the trade relations across the Straits are getting closer, reported People's Daily.

The statistics also show that Taiwan exports to the mainland reached 44.96 billion US dollars in 2004, an increase of 27.2 per cent over 2003; its imports from the mainland were 16.68 billion US dollars, an increase of 52.2 per cent. New trade records were registered for three consecutive months from October to December in 2004.

In the trade across the Straits, Taiwan's favorable trade balance was 28.28 billion US dollars last year, an increase of 15.9 per cent over the year before. It is reported Taiwan's demand for raw materials, electronic parts and semi-finished products, especially the raw minerals including billet, coal and aluminum from the mainland was increased by a big margin last year. The imports from the mainland were increased monthly and the monthly records were made for three consecutive months from October to December in 2004.

The main goods exported by Taiwan to the mainland last year included electrical equipment, optical products, machine tools, plastics and its products, steel, organic chemical products, synthetic fibers, copper and its products, industrial textile fabrics and synthetic textile fabrics and the total exports volume of which was 37.95 billion US dollars, accounting for 84.4 per cent of its total exports to the mainland. Among them, the exports of synthetic textile fabrics, industrial textile fabrics and steel were in stagnation or in decline in a small margin and the imports of which from the mainland accounted for 11.55 per cent of Taiwan's total imports from the mainland, a decrease of 0.4 per cent over 2003.

By People's Daily Online