Sino-Japanese trade sets first-half record. (Jetro News).

THE Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) announced August 20 that total trade between Japan and China in the first half of calendar 2002 grew 3.4% from the same period last year, to $45.12 billion--setting an all-time first-half record for the third consecutive year.

Automobiles, steel, and metalworking machinery led the Japanese export expansion. Japanese exports to China increased for the fourth straight year since 1999, rising 11.0% to $17.24 billion. Exports of semiconductors and other electronic parts, metalworking machinery, automobiles, and iron and steel e