BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The China-U.S. economic and trade relations have maintained fast development momentum since the two countries established diplomatic ties over 20 years ago, displaying profound basis and great development potentiality.

    As the biggest developing country and developed country in the world respectively, the mutual complementarity of China and the United States and the reciprocity of the bilateral trade cooperation form the foundation for the long-lasting development of the China-U.S. trade relations.

    During Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi's visit to the United States in early April, entrepreneurs of the two countries signed in the Los Angeles an array of procurement contracts worth 4.44 billion U.S. dollars, which involved 27 projects ranging from software, power generation equipment to automobiles and electronic products.

    According to statistics from China's General Administration of Customs, the United States remained the second largest trading partner of China in the first two months of this year, with bilateral trade volume of 33.29 billion U.S. dollars, up 25.3 percent year on year.

    Of the figures, the export and import volumes of China stood at 25.48 billion U.S. dollars and 7.8 billion U.S. dollars, up 27.3 percent and 19.3 percent, respectively.

    The China-U.S. trade volume reached 211.63 billion dollars in 2005, 86 times more than that of 1979 when their diplomatic ties were established. From 2001 to 2005, the bilateral trade volume maintained an average annual growth of 27.4 percent.

    China has become the fourth largest export market and the third largest trade partner of the United States, while the U.S. is the second largest trade partner of China.

    The United States has invested in nearly 50,000 projects in China with actual investment exceeding 50 billion U.S. dollars. Enditem