China's foreign trade continues to edge up

BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- China saw its foreign trade rise 6.5 percent year on year in July, with exports and imports up 10.4 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, data showed Friday.

Foreign trade stood at 2.93 trillion yuan (about 422.14 billion U.S. dollars) last month, resulting in a trade surplus of 442.23 billion yuan, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.

In the first seven months of this year, foreign trade of goods went down 1.7 percent year on year to 17.16 trillion yuan, narrowing by 1.5 percentage points compared with the decrease for the first half.

During the January-July period, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) remained China's largest trading partner, with trade up 6.6 percent year on year to 2.51 trillion yuan, accounting for 14.6 percent of China's total foreign trade.

Trade with the European Union went up 0.1 percent, while trade with the United States decreased by 3.3 percent during the period, GAC data showed.

From January to July, the foreign trade volume of private enterprises expanded by 7.2 percent to 7.83 trillion yuan, accounting for 45.6 percent of China's total foreign trade volume, up by 3.8 percentage points from the same period last year.

General trade decreased by 0.5 percent year on year in the first seven months. It accounted for 60.3 percent of the country's total trade, 0.7 percentage points higher over one year ago.

Exports of mechanical and electrical products edged up 0.2 percent to 5.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 58.5 percent of the total, while that of textile products including masks surged 35.8 percent to 634.32 billion yuan. Enditem