China's trade surplus fell by 42.5 percent in the first six months this year from a year earlier to 55.3 billion U.S. dollars, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Saturday.

In the first half of 2010, exports rose 35.2 percent to 705.09 billion dollars while imports were up 52.7 percent to 649.79 billion dollars, the GAC said in a statement posted on its official website.

China's foreign trade in the first half totaled 1.35 trillion dollars, a year-on-year increase of 43.1 percent, after the country saw its June exports and total trade both reach record highs, the GAC said.

In June, exports were up 43.9 percent to 137.4 billion dollars while imports were 117.37 billion dollars, up 34.1 percent year on year, resulting in a total trade value of 254.77 billion dollars, the GAC said.

The June exports increased 4.3 percent from May and the imports were 4.6 percent higher from the last month, according to the statement.

However, the paces of growth in exports and imports were both slower than in May when exports surged 48.5 percent and imports jumped 48.3 percent from a year earlier.