The Chinese mainland registered a trade deficit of more than 70 billion U.S. dollars with Taiwan in the first 11 months this year, official statistics show on Wednesday.

From January to November 2007, trade volume between the mainland and Taiwan reached 112.79 billion U.S. dollars, up 14.9 percent year on year, statistics from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) show.

The mainland's exports to Taiwan reached 21.18 billion U.S. dollars and imports from the island reached 91.61 billion U.S. dollars during the first 11 months.

During the same period, the mainland approved 2,993 projects with Taiwan investment and the actual use of Taiwan investment reached 1.43 billion U.S. dollars, down 9.8 percent and 25.9 percent respectively year on year.

By the end of November, 2007, direct investment from Taiwan in the mainland has totaled 45.33 billion U.S. dollars since figures first began in 1988 with the opening up of trade between the mainland and Taiwan.

The actual use of Taiwan's direct investment in the mainland ranked the fifth among all actually used overseas direct investment.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2007)