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China's Q1 bilateral trade with three major partners falls

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-12 10:26

China's bilateral trade with the United States, the European Union and Japan, its three major trade partners, continued to fall in the first quarter, the General Administration of Customs said in a report on Monday.

The bilateral trade volume between China and the US dropped to $62.08 billion in the first quarter, down 15.7 percent year on year. Export volume to the US declined to $25.52 billion, falling 14.9 percent from the previous year.

Related readings:  China, US vow to strengthen trade ties  EU, China agree to promote trade, investment  Ports pin hopes on rising domestic trade  China mulls new trade team to Europe

China's trade surplus against the US dropped to $28.96 billion in the first quarter, down 13 percent year on year.

In March, export to the US contracted for the fifth month in a row to $16.45 billion, but it was the first month-on-month growth since the fourth quarter last year, according to the report.

The bilateral trade volume between China and the European Union slumped to $75.19 billion, down 19.8 percent year on year. Export to the European Union fell to $17.21 billion, contracting by 20.2 percent year on year.

Germany, Netherlands and the UK ranked the top three among China's European trade partners, with bilateral trade volume at $21.63 billion, $8.07 billion and $7.7 billion, respectively.

China's trade volume with Japan slumped to $46.07 billion, a drastic year-on-year decrease of 23.8 percent, which was 4 and 8.1 percentage points higher than decline of trade with the European Union and the United States.