Taiwan-China trade reached US$168.96 billion in 2012: China customs

Two-way trade between Taiwan and China amounted to US$168.96 billion last year, with Taiwan enjoying a surplus of more than US$95 billion, according to Chinese customs figures released on Thursday.

China's Xinhua News Agency quoted Zheng Yuesheng, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs, as saying that the 2012 total was an increase of 5.6 percent from 2011 and represents 4.4 percent of China's aggregate foreign trade.

In 2012, mainland China exported US$36.78 billion in goods to Taiwan, up 4.8 percent from a year earlier, while importing US$132.18 billion-worth of products from Taiwan, a year-on-year growth of 5.8 percent, according to Zheng.

He expected cross-Taiwan Strait trade to grow in the months and years ahead with the implementation of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a landmark deal signed between Taipei and Beijing in 2010.

Another reason that Zheng said he was optimistic about the future of trade ties between both sides was the "linking" of Taiwan's "Golden Decade" project and China's 12th Five-Year Economic Development Plan which spans from 2011 to 2015.