[DIV class=storyheadline]China now B.C.'s No. 2 trade partner[/DIV][DIV class=storysubhead]Japan drops to No. 3 while USA remains by far our largest market[/DIV][TABLE width="100%" border=0][TBODY][TR][TD colSpan=2] [/TD][/TR][TR][TD colSpan=2][FONT class=storybyline]Wency Leung[/FONT][/TD][/TR][TR][TD colSpan=2][FONT class=storypub]Vancouver Sun[/FONT][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE][DIV class=storydate]
Monday, March 13, 2006[/DIV]
[DIV class=storytext][!--begin story text--]China topped Japan as B.C.'s second-largest trading partner for the first time last year, when trade between the province and China reached $8.9 billion, the Asia Pacific Foundation reports.
Chinese imports totalled $7.5 billion, up 23 per cent from 2004, according to a report from the Vancouver-based think tank. That far outweighed B.C.-origin exports to China, which rose nine per cent to nearly $1.4 billion.
In comparison, total trade with Japan last year was $8.8 billion, while the U.S. remained the province's largest trading partner with total trade worth $36 billion.
Kenny Zhang, research analyst at the Asia Pacific Foundation, said: "China is rising. They have a huge increase in export capacity. On the other hand, Japan has stayed at the same level for quite a while, over five years now."
The report said the types of B.C. exports to China have not changed dramatically over the past 15 years. The main exported commodities continue to be natural resources and resource-based products, such as pulp and paper, wood, coal, copper and other minerals. China's demand for such commodities has risen due to the country's robust manufacturing sector.
B.C., meanwhile, is importing more higher-value items, such as computers and electronics, from China as opposed to the simple consumer goods that dominated China's production more than a decade ago.
In 1990, toys, games and sporting goods was the No. 1 import to the province from China, valued at $27.1 million. Last year, however, that spot was taken by boilers and appliances, which totalled more than $1.2 billion, followed by electrical machinery and equipment, valued at nearly the same amount.
"The tremendous growth and the diversification of B.C.-China trade are mainly attributed to the growing number of B.C. companies becoming involved with the China market, in addition to the efforts of many trading companies doing business with the new Asian giant," the report said.
At least 140 B.C. companies currently have business operations in China, including Hong Kong.
Trade with China is more important to B.C. than it is to the other provinces, the report said.
B.C. contributed 20.9 per cent of Canadian exports to China, and received 25.4 per cent of all Chinese-origin imports to the country.
Zhang said trade with China is only expected to grow.
"We have spent huge amounts of our efforts to tap into the China market and the trade levels will increase dramatically," he said.
[email protected]B.C., CHINA ROLLING UP THE RIM TRADE:B.C. relies more on trade with China than any other Canadian province.
- $8.9 billion: Total value of trade between B.C. and China in 2005
- $7.5 billion: Value of Chinese imports to B.C., up 23% from 2004
- $1.4 billion: Value of B.C. exports to China, up 9%
Source: Asia Pacific Foundation
[!--end story text--][/DIV][DIV class=storycredit align=center]© The Vancouver Sun 2006[/DIV]
