The import-export trade in Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, grosses 29.4 billion yuan ($4.25 billion) in the first four months of 2019. [Photo/IC]

The import-export trade in Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, grossed 29.4 billion yuan ($4.25 billion) in the first four months of 2019, statistics from Taicang Customs show.

The general trade import and export business became one of the growth points for the foreign trade in Taicang from January to April, when it traded 20.64 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3 percent and taking up 70.2 percent of the city's total foreign trade value.

Trade with Taicang's traditional trading partners, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, the United States, and the EU, saw ups and downs in the first four months.

Imports from ASEAN members jumped 17.3 percent year-on-year to 5.16 billion yuan, and exports to them stood at 1.55 billion yuan, up by 5.9 percent year-on-year.

The import and export trade value with Japan amounted to 1.24 billion yuan and 2.46 billion yuan respectively, with identical year-on-year increases of 0.8 percent.

During the same period, Taicang's trade with the US dipped while its exports to the EU increased by 10.6 percent to 3.7 billion yuan.

A spokesman for Taicang Customs said that they will continue cutting down the clearance time for foreign trade to bolster the steady growth of Taicang's import-export trade.