The European Union continued to be China's largest trade partner in the first 11 months of this year, with the bilateral trade volume topping 196.77 billion US dollars, up 23.6 percent year on year.

Figures released by the General Administration of Chinese Customs on Monday showed that the United States and Japan were the second and third largest trade partners of China.

During the January-November period, the trade volume between China and the United States reached 191.55 billion US dollars, up 25.4 percent year on year, while that between China and Japan totaled 166.97 billion US dollars, up 10.2 percent.

Hong Kong, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Republic of Korea have become the Chinese mainland's fourth, fifth and sixth largest trade partners, with trade volume between them reaching 120.45, billion US dollars, 117.24 billion dollars and 101.45 billion dollars, respectively, in the first 11 months.

Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces in east China and Shanghai Municipality preceded other cities in terms of foreign trade in the first 11 months. Guangdong registered a trade volume of 381.68 billion US dollars, up 19.6 percent year on year. Jiangsu and Shanghai reported foreign trade volume of 207.05 billion US dollars and 170.02 billion US dollars respectively.

Source: Xinhua