Trade between the UAE and China increased five-fold over the past 10 years to $15.6 billion in 2012 from $3.12 billion in 2002, marking a growth rate of 395 per cent, a report said.

A study released yesterday (September 10) by UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Trade (MOFT) on trade relations between the UAE and China on the sidelines of the Ningxia International Investment and Trade Fair 2012 and the second China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum said that the trade reached $14.2 billion last year, with a 10 per cent growth rate, according to the report published by Emirates News Agency WAM.

Imports from China include electronic appliances, radio audio recording devices, cameras, mechanical tools and devices, and articles of iron and steel, the report said, while the exports were plastics, copper as well as iron and its products.

The MOFT study said that the Halal food industry in China was worth $2.5 billion last year having grown by 10 per cent from the year before.