China is now Japan´s top trading partner

Source: CCTV.com | 05-06-2008 16:28

Bilateral trade between China and Japan has developed rapidly increasing more than 200 fold in the past thirty years. This guarantees China's status as Japan's number one trading partner.

Lv Kejian, Director of Asia Department of Ministry of Commerce said "According to Japan's statistics, China became Japan's leading trading partner last year. The volume of China-Japan trade accounts for 18 percent of the total volume of Japan's foreign trade. And bilateral trade continues to maintain a steady and robust growth this year."

According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce the volume of China-Japan trade exceeded 60 billion US dollars in the first quarter this year, an increase of 14.4 percent compared with the same period last year.

Japan is now China's fourth largest export market and one of China's major sources of imports. Japan enjoys a trade surplus of 8.3 billion US dollars so far this year in trade with China an increase of nearly 30 percent increase compared to last year. Japan has greatly increased its exports to China since China's entry to the WTO.

According to statistics from China's customs authorities, the total bilateral trade volume between China and Japan reached 236 billion US dollars in 2007. And the volume of Japan's exports to China that year exceeded 100 billion US dollars for the first time.

Editor:Xiong Qu