China's trade with Association of Southeast Asian Nations members amounted to US$95.55 billion in the first five months of this year, a growth of 26.9 percent over the same period last year, the General Administration of Customs said yesterday.

The total included US$50.27 billion in import value, up 22.3 percent, and US$45.28 billion in export value, up 32.6 percent. The trade deficit went down US$1.96 billion, or 28.2 percent, to US$4.99 billion.

Trade deficit was mainly recorded in the high-tech sector, which stood at US$11.8 billion in such products, up 4.7 percent.

The five months saw an import of US$25.01 billion worth of high-tech products from ASEAN members, up 16.7 percent, and an export of US$13.21 billion, up 30 percent.

China's top five trade partners in ASEAN were Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. The five accounted for US$84.84 billion, or 88.8 percent, of the total China-ASEAN trade volume.

Most trade fell in the sectors of machinery and electronics.

From January to May, The value of machines and electronics traded between China and ASEAN members increased by 27.4 percent to US$54.7 billion, or 57.2 percent of the total.

(Shanghai Daily July 28, 2008)