Taiwan's two-way trade with China grew 15 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of this year, surging to US$45.6 billion, officials from the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
January-to-August two-way trade with China constituted 18.9 percent of Taiwan's entire foreign trade during that period, up one percentage point over the year-earlier level, BOFT officials said.
Taiwan's exports to China amounted to US$32.74 billion during the period, up 11.7 percent on the figure posted for the same period of last year. This amounted to 27.1 percent of Taiwan's entire export trade in the period, marking a year-on-year increase of 1.2 percentage points in this area.
Taiwan's imports from China totaled US$12.87 billion in the same eight month period, up 24.5 percent on the corresponding period of last year. This amount was 10.7 percent of all of Taiwan's import trade in the period, marking a year-on-year increase of 1.1 percent, BOFT officials said.
Taiwan thus enjoyed a trade surplus of US$19.87 billion with China in the first eight months of this year, the officials said, showing growth of 4.7 percent compared with the same period of last year.
During the January-August period, electrical engineering equipment, optoelectronics, machinery, plastics, steel, chemicals and man-made fibers made up the bulk of Taiwan's exports to China.
Meanwhile, electrical engineering equipment, machinery, steel, mineral fuel, optoelectronics, chemicals, plastics, metal products, cement, transportation vehicles and spare parts made up the bulk of Taiwan's imports from China in the same period, the officials said.
They also quoted tallies compiled by the Chinese Customs authorities as indicating that Taiwan was China's third largest source of imports in the first eight months of this year, behind only Japan and South Korea, while ahead of the US, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Russia and Thailand.
Imports from these 10 countries constituted 62.85 percent of China's entire import trade in that period, the Chinese Customs tallies showed.
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