Australian minister says China is largest trade partner

Australian Minister for Trade SimonCrean said here on Tuesday the trade figures are a milestone in the evolution of Australia's trading relationship with China.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released Tuesday shows that China became Australia's largest two-way trading partner (imports and exports of both goods and services) in 2007.

Total trade with China in 2007 grew 15 percent to 58 billion dollars (54.8 billion US dollars). Australia's exports of goods to China rose 17 percent to 23.8 billion dollars, while services exports grew 18 percent to 3.9 billion dollars on the back of strong growth in Chinese student enrolments.

These figures show there is much potential for our trade to grow even further, which is why we are working hard to negotiate a free trade agreement with China, Crean said in a statement.

We have made good progress in negotiating that agreement over the past month, and I look forward to further progress at our next talks in June.

Despite China becoming our overall largest trading partner, Japan will continue to be Australia's largest export destination for the foreseeable future. Total two-way trade with Japan was worth 54.5 billion dollars in 2007.

Japan continues to have a special significance as an Australian trading partner, reflecting the importance of the political, strategic, trade and economic links our two countries have developed over 50 years, Crean said.

The US is Australia's number three trading partner, with total 2007 trade growing 0.1 percent to 47.7 billion dollars.

(1 Australian dollar equals 0.945 U.S. dollar).

Source: Xinhua