In the past 10 months, China achieved a trade surplus of 24.74 billion US dollars, with exports reaching 262.5 billion US dollars, up 20.6 percent from a year ago, and imports coming to 237.76 billion US dollars, up 18.7 percent.

Electro-mechanical exports have soared to 125.57 billion US dollars, up 30.4 percent from the same period last year.

Traditional export items, including textiles, garments and plastic products, still remained the leading export items with two-digit growth rates.

Imports dropped in some items like soybeans and petroleum products, but soared in some items like cars and steel. China imported 100,000 cars and 20.57 million tons of steel in the past 10 months, up 55.4 percent and 45.5 percent from the figures a year ago.

Some experts predict that China's foreign trade volume will top 600 billion US dollars this year.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2002)