ANNUAL REPORT

366
$67.2 billion, comprising 25.4 percent of Taiwan’s exports to the
world. 73 Year-on-year, Taiwan’s exports to China shrank by 13.2
percent and its trade surplus with China decreased by 21.5 percent
in 2015 (see Figure 2). 74 Taiwan’s exports to China were dominated
by semiconductor-related and liquid crystal display-related products
in 2015. 75 These products composed all of Taiwan’s top five exports
to China and more than a quarter of the value of Taiwan’s
total exports to China (see Figure 3). 76 Taiwan’s exports of these
top five products to China decreased by 17.8 percent in 2015. 77
Figure 2: Taiwan’s Trade with China and the United States, 2002–2015
Source: Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade, ‘‘Trade Statistics.’’ http://cus93.trade.gov.tw/
ENGLISH/FSCE/.
dkrause on DSKHT7XVN1PROD with USCC
Taiwan’s imports from China in 2015 were $44.2 billion, comprising
19.4 percent of its total imports. 78 Despite imports from
China decreasing by 8 percent, China remained Taiwan’s largest
source of imports. 79 Just as semiconductor-related products were
among Taiwan’s top exports to China, they also were among Taiwan’s
main imports from China. 80 (Taiwan firms generally design
and manufacture unfinished microchips and other semiconductorrelated
products in Taiwan for assembly and testing in China;
China then typically exports the finished products back to Taiwan.)
81 Taiwan’s other major imports from China included cellular
phones and computers and computer parts and accessories. 82 Despite
the overall decrease in imports, imports of cellular phones increased
by 37.6 percent and imports of wafers for microchips increased
by 10.2 percent. 83 Both cellular phones and wafers for
microchips were among Taiwan’s top five imports from China (see
Figure 4). 84 Imports of the other top five products all decreased,
with microchips decreasing by 14.3 percent, computer parts and accessories
decreasing by 7.1 percent, and computers decreasing by
15.8 percent. 85
VerDate Sep 11 2014 14:49 Nov 01, 2016 Jkt 020587 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 G:\GSDD\USCC\2016\FINAL\09_C3_M.XXX 09_C3_M
C3S2Fig2.eps