Mainland Takes Largest Share of Taiwan's Trade Surplus

    TAIPEI, Aug 30-- The Chinese mainland was Taiwan's biggest export market in the first half, accounting for almost a third of the island's exports, according to the island's trade bureau.

    Taiwan's trade surplus with the mainland in the first half amounted to 24.4 billion U.S. dollars, up 21.7 percent from the first half last year and the highest level in four years, the bureau said in a report.

    The bureau predicted the annual trade surplus would hit a new high.

    The first-half cross-Strait trade volume reached 56.76 U.S. billion dollars, a 22.1 percent rise.

    The mainland's exports to Taiwan reached 16.18 billion U.S. dollars, up 23.1 percent, while imports from Taiwan totaled 40.58 billion U.S. dollars, up 21.7 percent.

    The mainland accounted for 30.2 percent of Taiwan's gross exports, a 0.9 percent increase, indicating "the island's increasingly high dependence on cross-Strait trade", the report said.

    The report also showed the mainland's exports in July increased by 27 percent, bucking a global economic downturn.

   (Source: Xinhua)