Taiwan exported 9.22 billion U.S. dollars worth of products and services to the Chinese mainland in the first four months of this year, making it the island's largest export market, according to news reaching Hong Kong from Taipei on June 28.

  Taiwan's mainland-bound exports for the January-April period represented an increase of 21.2 percent over the same period of last year.

  Major exports to mainland included electrical equipment and parts, machine tools, plastics, steel, synthetic fibers, optical products, organic chemicals, industrial textiles, and brass and bronze products.

  Meanwhile, Taiwan posted a trade surplus of 6.99 billion dollars against the mainland in the first four months of this year, up 23.4 percent over the year-earlier level.

  Taiwan imported 2.23 billion dollars worth of goods from the mainland in the first four months, up 14.8 percent.

  Most of the imports in this period were electrical equipment and parts, machine tools and components, mineral fuels, iron and steel, stone materials, cement, organic chemicals, toys, sporting goods, furniture, and bedroom linen.