Shanghai's trade with EU tops $65b in Jan-July

SHANGHAI -- Imports and exports between Shanghai and its largest foreign-trade partner, European Union (EU), reached 450.81 billion yuan ($65.8 billion) in the first seven months, marking a slight decrease of 0.2 percent year-on-year.

The figure accounted for 19.7 percent of Shanghai's total trade value during the period. In the first seven months, Shanghai's total import and export volume reached 2.28 trillion yuan, up 3.03 percent year-on-year, according to Shanghai Customs.

Shanghai's exports to the EU reached 162.19 billion yuan, up 22.5 percent year-on-year while its imports from the EU reached 288.62 billion yuan, down 9.6 percent year-on-year.

In the first seven months, Shanghai's imports and exports to Germany and France were 140.01 billion yuan and 53.81 billion yuan respectively, down 4.1 percent and 12.1 percent year-on-year. During the same period, its import and export to Italy came in at 60.82 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.4 percent.

Shanghai's imports and exports to the Netherlands and Belgium were 46.04 billion yuan and 28.08 billion yuan respectively, up 13.4 percent and 39.2 percent year-on-year.