China reports trade surplus with US as $53.2 billion
According to the figures officially published early this week, China's trade surplus with the US in the first 11 months of 2003 is forecasted to reach $53.2 billion level. This figure is almost half of the same predicted by the US authorities due to different calculation methods, such as including imports and exports via Hong Kong unlike China. Thus, US authorities expect trade surplus with China to pass $120 billion level. The trade between the two countries rose up to around $114 billion in the same period with an increase by nearly 29%, resulting in contribution to the increase seen in trade surplus of China with its second major trading partner followed by Japan. Again in the same period last year, China's trade with Japan increased by 31% to $120 billion, bringing trade surplus to $14.4 billion.