Shanghai FTZ sees $121 bln foreign trade in 1st year

Foreign trade in China's Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone reached 747.5 billion yuan (121.7 billion U.S. dollars) in its first year of operation, Shanghai customs said on Thursday.

Trade volume, up 6.5 percent from the previous year, accounted for 26.4 percent of the total foreign trade in Shanghai.

From Oct. 2013 to Sept., the FTZ's exports hit 196.5 billion yuan and imports 551 billion yuan.

Imported commodities include automobiles, medical and health products, copper goods and aircraft. Machinery products were the most important exports.

Major trade partners are the European Union, the ASEAN, the United States and Japan.

China set up the FTZ on Sept. 29 last year as a testing ground for economic reforms. Twenty-one pilot measures which the FTZ adopted in such areas as business registration, cross-border financing and investment and customs clearance, have become formal policies applied elsewhere in the country.