Taiwan's two-way trade with the Chinese mainland grew 15 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of this year, surging to US$45.6 billion, officials from the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) under the "Ministry of Economic Affairs" said Sunday.

January-to-August two-way trade with the mainland constituted 18.9 percent of Taiwan's entire foreign trade during that period, up one percentage point over the year-earlier level, BOFT officials said.

Taiwan's exports to the mainland amounted to US$32.74 billion during the period, up 11.7 per cent on the figure posted for the same period of 2004. This amounted to 27.1 per cent of Taiwan's entire export trade in the period, marking a year-on-year increase of 1.2 percentage points in this area.

Taiwan's imports from the mainland totaled US$12.87 billion in the same eight month period, up 24.5 per cent on the corresponding period of 2004. This amount was 10.7 per cent of all of Taiwan's import trade in the period, marking a year-on-year increase of 1.1 percentage points, BOFT officials said.

Taiwan thus enjoyed a trade surplus of US$19.87 billion with the mainland in the first eight months of this year, the officials said, showing growth of 4.7 per cent compared with the same period of 2004.

During the January-August period, electrical engineering equipment, optoelectronics, machinery, plastics, steel, chemicals and man-made fibers made the bulk of Taiwan's exports to the mainland.

Meanwhile, electrical engineering equipment, machinery, steel, mineral fuel, optoelectronics, chemicals, plastics, metal products, cement, transportation vehicles and parts made the bulk of Taiwan's imports from the mainland in the same period, the officials said.

They also quoted tallies compiled by the mainland's customs authorities as indicating that Taiwan was the mainland's third largest source of imports in the first eight months of this year, behind only Japan and South Korea, while ahead of the United States, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Russia and Thailand, in that order.

Imports from these 10 countries/regions constituted 62.85 per cent of the Chinese mainland's entire import trade in that period, the mainland customs tallies showed.

Editor: Yan