China becomes Russia's top trade partner

MOSCOW - China was Russia's top trade partner in the first seven months of 2012, with bilateral trade volume reaching $49.8 billion, the Russian Federal Customs Service said on Tuesday.

Bilateral trade between the two countries increased 10.9 percent year on year, the agency said in its regular report.

Russia and China have set a goal of lifting bilateral trade to 100 billion dollars by 2015 and 200 billion by 2020.

China was followed by the Netherlands, whose trade volume with Russia during the period increased 31.1 percent to $49.3 billion, and Germany, also at 49.3 billion dollars, the agency said.

Also among the top 10 trade partners of Russia were Italy, Turkey, Japan, the United States, Poland, France and the Republic of Korea.

According to the report, the European Union (EU) has played an important role in Russia's foreign trade, as 49 percent of Russia' s trade turnover in the January-July period was with EU countries.

In all, Russia's foreign trade volume increased 5 percent to $475.5 billion in the first seven months this year, with a trade surplus of 128.8 billion.