The trade volume between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China has increased fivefold over the past 10 years with a growth rate of 395 percent - from US$15.654 billion in 2011 to US$3.12 billion in 2002. During this period, both countries achieved steady economic growth that was capable of overcoming the ramifications of the slowing global economy. In a study released today by the Ministry of Foreign Trade (MOFT) on trade relations between the United Arab Emirates and China on the sidelines of the UAE's participation in the ‘Ningxia International Investment and Trade Fair 2012' and the ‘2nd China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum', which are scheduled to take place between the 12th and 16th of this month in the city of Yinchuan, the capital and largest city of the autonomous Chinese Ningxia region, the Ministry stated that the People's Republic of China maintained its status as the UAE's second largest trade partner, revealing that trade between the two countries grew to US$15.6 billion in 2012, in comparison with US$14.2 billion in 2011 (with a 10 percent growth rate). The main imports from China were electronic appliances, radio audio recording devices, cameras, mechanical tools and devices, and articles of iron and steel. As to the main exports to China, those were plastics and their products, copper and its products, as well as iron and its products, the study noted, according to the UAE news agency "WAM."
