Taiwan registered a trade surplus of $3.98 billion with China in January, an increase of 12.8 percent from the same month in 2007. Although the two countries do not maintain diplomatic ties, two-way trade totaled $9.5 billion during the first month of this year, up 15.4 percent from January 2007, according to the Bureau of Foreign Trade, a division of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs. In January, Taiwan's officially-registered bilateral trade with China constituted 22.2 percent of the island's entire foreign trade, an increase of 0.4 percentage points on-year, the bureau stated. Taiwan imported $2.76 billion worth of products and services from China in January, a record, and up 17.3 percent from a year ago. Shipments from China accounted for 13.4 percent of Taiwan's total imports by value in January, an increase of 0.3 percentage points on a year-on-year basis. Taiwan exported $6.74 billion worth of goods and services to China in January, up 14.6 percent from the same month in 2007. China deliveries comprised 30.4 percent of Taiwan's overall exports for the month, a year-on-year increase of 0.7 percent. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and Germany were China's top five import sources in the first month of this year, according to statistics compiled by Chinese customs.
Journal of Commerce
