Trade between East China's Shandong province and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative grew by 10.3 percent year on year in the first four months of 2020 to 196.18 billion yuan ($27.64 billion), according to customs statistics.

The automatic dock of the Qingdao Port in Qingdao, Shandong province [Photo/Sipa]

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) was Shandong's largest trade partner during this period, with imports and exports totaling 80.61 billion yuan, up 17.2 percent year on year.

Its trade with Latin America totaled 74.29 billion yuan, down 17.2 percent year on year, trade with the EU (excluding the UK) reached 62.41 billion yuan, up 0.5 percent year on year, trade with South Korea totaled 57.94 billion yuan, down 10.4 percent year on year, trade with the United States totaled 54.25 billion yuan, down 7.3 percent year on year, trade with Japan reached 47.08 billion yuan, up 0.4 percent year on year, and trade with Africa totaled 44.79 billion yuan, down 28.8 percent year on year.

The province's total foreign trade in the first four months of this year was valued at 615.1 billion yuan, down 2.6 percent from the same period last year and accounting for 6.8 percent of China's total foreign trade, ranking sixth among Chinese provinces.