The Chinese mainland was Taiwan's biggest export market in the first half, accounting for almost a third of the island's exports, according to the island's trade bureau.

Taiwan's trade surplus with the Chinese mainland in the first half amounted to $24.4 billion, up 21.7 percent from the first half last year and the highest level in four years, the bureau said in a report.

The bureau predicted the annual trade surplus would hit a new high.

The first-half cross-Straits trade volume reached $56.76 billion, a 22.1 percent rise.

The Chinese mainland's exports to Taiwan Province reached $16.18 billion, up 23.1 percent, while imports from Taiwan totaled $40.58 billion, up 21.7 percent.

The Chinese mainland accounted for 30.2 percent of Taiwan's gross exports, a 0.9 percent increase, indicating "the island's increasingly high dependence on cross-Straits trade", the report said.

The report also showed the Chinese mainland's exports in July increased by 27 percent, bucking a global economic downturn.

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2008)