China's foreign trade expanded 6 percent year-on-year to 28.58 trillion yuan ($4.02 trillion) in the first eight months of 2024, the General Administration of Customs released the data on Tuesday.

In the meantime, the country's exports rose 6.9 percent yearly to 16.45 trillion yuan, while imports climbed 4.7 percent year-on-year to 12.13 trillion yuan, according to the administration.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has remained China's largest trading partner during the January-August period. China's trade with ASEAN economies surged 10 percent year-on-year to 4.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 15.7 percent of the country's total foreign trade value.

China's foreign trade with the European Union grew by 1.1 percent from a year earlier between January and August, while the country's foreign trade with the United States climbed 4.4 percent on a yearly basis, the customs statistics showed.