China's April Foreign Trade Dropped for Sixth Month      

China's exports and imports shrank 22.8% year-on-year to US$170.73 billion this April, indicating the sixth consecutive monthly double-digit drop, the General Administration of Customs released on May 12th.
   Exports fell 22.6% year-on-year to US$91.94 billion. Imports dropped 23% to US$78.8 billion.
   The monthly trade surplus this April was US$13.14 billion, down 20.6% from a previous year, compared with US$18.56 billion this March.
   China's bilateral trade with the United States, the European Union and Japan, its three core trade partners, continued to fall in April. The bilateral trade between China and the European Union dropped to US$27.3 billion this April, down 17.1% from a year earlier. China's bilateral trade with the USA and Japan slumped to US$23.76 billion and US$18.45 billion respectively, sharply down 17.1% and 23.8%. The bilateral trade between China and ASEAN vertically fell 23.3% to US$15.91 billion.
   Exports saw an annual drop but a monthly increase in April, with plastic products drop of 5.7% year-on-year and rise of 11.9% on a monthly basis. China exported 360 000 tons of crude oil and 2.08 million tons of oil products respectively, down 23.4% and 138.7% from a month ago.
   Meanwhile, China imported 16.17 million tons of crude oil this April, showing an increase of 13.5% year-on-year and 3.7% on a monthly basis. And the state imported 3.7 million tons of oil products, up 2.6% year-on-year and monthly up 21.1%.  
    Imports of chemicals and their related products amounted to US$9.15 billion, down 18% from a previous year and monthly up 14.4%.