NANJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The foreign trade volume of eastern China's Jiangsu Province reached 4.3 trillion yuan (about 632 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, accounting for 13.8 percent of the total in China, according to Nanjing Customs Sunday.
In 2019, Jiangsu's exports and imports totaled 2.7 trillion yuan and 1.6 trillion yuan, respectively. The province's general foreign trade rose for three consecutive years, up 4.9 percent year on year to 2.2 trillion yuan in 2019.
Jiangsu continuously optimized its international market layout last year. The number of its trade partners with an annual trade volume of over 10 billion yuan rose to 49 in 2019, and its trade with countries along the Belt and Road and in Africa rose 9.4 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively.
In the meantime, the European Union replaced the United States as Jiangsu's largest trade partner last year.
The province saw strong momentum in exports of equipment manufacturing products, as well as mechanical and electrical products in 2019, with exports of automobiles, electronic products and medical equipment growing by 47.1 percent, 16.3 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively.
Its imports of energy products, high-tech products and high-quality consumer goods achieved prominent increases. Among them, imports of cosmetics and four-wheel-drive light off-road vehicles rose 49.1 percent and 78 percent year on year, respectively.