Taiwan enjoyed a total trade surplus with the Chinese mainland of more than 30 billion US dollars in 2005, an all time high in history, according to across-the-Taiwan Straits trade statistics released by a related Taiwan economic authority on Friday.

It is reported that the trade volume across the Straits reached 71.7 billion US dollars, a year-on-year growth of 16.3 per cent, last year. Taiwan exports to the mainland stood at 51.773 billion US dollars and import 19.928 billion US dollars with its trade surplus reaching 31.845 billion US dollars, a year-on-year growth of 12.6 per cent.

Taiwan export to the mainland includes organic chemical and plastics products, electric machine and equipment and their spare parts, and optical products. In addition, the statistics by the related economic departments show that the mainland has replaced the United States to become Taiwan's second largest import source, but with slower growth rate since September of last year.

By People's Daily Online