Trade between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan expanded 5.6 percent year on year in 2012 to $168.96 billion, the General Administration of Customs said Thursday.

The trade accounted for 4.4 percent of the Chinese mainland's total trade volume in 2012, spokesman Zheng Yuesheng said at a press conference.

The mainland's exports to Taiwan rose 4.8 percent year on year to $36.78 billion, while its imports from Taiwan reached $132.18 billion, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier, the spokesman said.

Last year, the mainland imported goods worth $8.43 billion from Taiwan under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a jump of 105 percent from a year earlier, Zheng said.

The ECFA, a wide-ranging cross-strait economic pact signed in 2010, also helped traders save $3.97 billion in tariffs, 3.3 times the amount saved in 2011, according to Zheng.

The outlook for cross-Straits trade is promising, as the two sides plan to adopt more practical and open measures to boost trade, the spokesman said.