According to statistics issued by General Administration of Customs of China on August 10th, the total value of Chinese imports and exports from January to July 2006 was US$ 941.85 billion, increasing by 24.8% against the same period of last year.

Among it, the total value of exports is US$ 508.9 billion, up 24.8% and that of imports is US$ 432.95 billion, an increase of 21.1%. The gap between the increasing rates of Chinese imports and exports narrowed from 3.9 percentage points in the first half of 2006 to 3.7 percentage points in July.

The statistics also show that international trade between China and her trade partners keeps increasing steadily and has good prospects. Between January to July, the European Union was still the largest trade partner of China. Sino-EU bilateral trade was valued at US$ 143.5 billion, climbing by 21.1%. The United States is China's second largest partner with a total value of Sino-U.S. bilateral trade reaching US$ 142.16 billion and increasing by 24.2%. Next is Japan which with China has US$ 112.94 billion worth bilateral trade, growing by 11%. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations still remains in the fourth place.

By People's Daily Online