Hopewell Radebe
JUST 10 years after establishing diplomatic and trade relations, China has overtaken the US, Japan, Germany and the UK to become SA's biggest trading partner, according to the latest figures from the Department of Trade and Industry.
Trade volumes with China between January and July have reached R32,4bn, followed by the US with R21,7bn, Japan's R19,7bn, Germany's R17,5bn and the UK's R15,2bn. This indicated an increase in SA-China trade of 11,95% from 8,45% in the same period last year.
The US was SA's major trading partner only briefly, in the 2006- 07 financial year, after taking over from the UK, which had held the number one spot for a long time.
