Export business deals worth US$2.56 billion were struck at the 14th East China Import and Export Commodity Far that closed in Shanghai on Sunday.

Tang Qingfu, deputy secretary-general of the organizing office,said 18,900 business people attended the week-long fair, including2,073 from Europe and 1,518 from North America.

Textiles and garments, light industrial commodities and handicrafts were the most popular items traded at the fair, said Tang, who is also deputy head of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Tang believed that the Shanghai fair was a weathervane for the country's foreign trade after China Export Commodity Fair, a biannual trade market in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, in spring and autumn.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2004)