Shanghai-US trade slows down in Q1

The growth of bilateral trade between Shanghai and the U.S. slowed down to 12% in the first quarter of 2008, due to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and the accelerated appreciation of Chinese currency against the U.S. dollars.

The imports and exports between Shanghai and the U.S. reached US$23.42 billion in the first quarter, 11.9 percentage points less than the average level of Shanghai's foreign trade in the same period.

Among them, the exports to the U.S. were US$18.48 billion, up 11.4% year on year. The growth rate was 7.2 percentage points lower than 2007, ranking the third among Shanghai's three major trading partners, including the E.U., Japan and the U.S.

The imports from the U.S. reached US$4.94 billion, 14.4% higher than that in Q1 of 2007, and accounting for 9.7% of Shanghai's total imports.

The trade surplus between Shanghai and the U.S. was US$13.54 billion, accounting for 36.3% of Shanghai's total, and down 6.9 percentage points year on year.