Trade across the Taiwan Strait regained momentum in October, growing 0.7 percent after six consecutive months of decline, according to statistics released yesterday by the Board of Foreign Trade (BOFT).
The figures show that Taiwan shipped US$2.33 billion-worth of goods to China during the month, a decline of 0.8 percent from the same period last year, while importing US$604 million-worth of products from the other side of the strait -- an increase of 6.8 percent.
October's imports from China represented a record amount for a single month.
The BOFT said that Taiwan-China trade is warming up in light of the two countries' admittance to the WTO. China has already become a full member of the world trade regulatory body while Taiwan will join on Tuesday.
For the first 10 months of this year, cross-strait trade totaled US$24.57 billion, accounting for 12.7 percent of Taiwan's global trade and representing year-on-year growth of 1.5 percent. As a result, Taiwan registered a trade surplus with China of US$14.83 billion, a reduction of 10.6 percent.
The BOFT attributed the reduced trade surplus to Taiwan's increased imports from China, combined with reduced exports to China over the 10 months.
A breakdown of the statistics show that Taiwan's imports from China amounted to US$4.86 billion in the January-October period, representing 5.4 percent of the nation's overall imports, while its exports to China stood at US$19.7 billion, or 19.2 percent of its global exports.
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