In an interview with AFP, Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou said the framework agreement was just a first step, but that he was confident it would lead to deeper trade agreements with China and continue to lower tensions between the former enemies.

Taiwan's central bank has said its easy monetary policy is over after it left key rates unchanged for the fifth consecutive quarter to support the island's still-fragile economic recovery.

Japan's exports in February jumped 45.3% from a year earlier, fueled by robust global demand for cars and electronics, according to the finance ministry.

China's exports jumped by 46% in February compared with a year ago, raising hopes of a strong recovery in global trade.

Many of the nation's top retail chains reported much stronger-than-expected February sales Thursday, furthering hopes that U.S. consumers are starting to loosen their purse strings.

Japan's unemployment rate fell below 5% for the first time in a year in January 2010, as strong exports fed into a strengthening economic recovery.

Prices on futures of the metal traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) touched US$7,600 a tonne, the highest since 20 January. Officials in Chile - the world's biggest copper miner - have promised to honour its export commitments.

Japan enjoyed its biggest on-year increase in exports in almost 30 years last month. The value of exports rose 40.9% in January 2010 from a year earlier, the fastest pace since February 1980.

Putting all this into long-term perspective, the current problem offers a glimpse of the likely more massive labor shortage issue that China is set to face in the next few decades as its single-child policy keeps accelerating the aging of its still-enormous population.

Brian Hicks, who co-manages the Global Resources Fund at US Global Investors, said reports continue to show demand for copper, particularly in China, remains high. China is one of the largest importers of copper.

The share of exports of the Big Five of 1999 fell to 34% in 2009. That loss of nine percentage points was matched by a similar gain for China, India and South Korea, with most of the gain going to China.

The emergence of the world economy from the worst slump since World War II spurred businesses in Taiwan, where exports equal half of GDP, to boost production and hire more workers.

German exports in 2009 were equivalent to US$1,121.3 billion which compared with the US$1,201.7 billion exported by China. China's goods exports also suffered badly last year, falling by 16% over the course of the year, the first time they had declined since 1978.

"Foreign firms have expressed a willingness to increase investment or make new investments in Taiwan" once the island signs the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China to remove bilateral tariffs, Ma told reporters at a news briefing to promote the pact. He didn't make any forecasts about the potential value of such investments.

Meeting that goal would require the president to engage in a fight to the death with the liberal wing of his own party, persuade China to allow its currency to appreciate 40%, get global economic growth to outperform the salad days from 2003 to 2007, and lower taxes for American companies that do business abroad. And, while he is at it, forget about strengthening the dollar in the foreseeable future.

Japan's exports grew for the first time in 15 months in December 2009, according to the finance ministry. Its exports to China expanded 42.8% to 1.1 trillion yen in the month.

China has said its economy expanded by 8.7% in 2009, exceeding even the government's own initial expectations.

"China's exports largely consist of low-value everyday goods like cheap electrical appliances and textiles - but that's a long way from where it wants to be..."

China's exports probably ended a 13-month slide in December, aiding an economic rebound that has so far depended on government stimulus measures and a credit-fueled building boom.

China exported US$957 billion of goods in the first 10 months of 2009, compared with US$917 billion for Germany, according to customs data compiled by Global Trade Information Services.

Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party has said the government has failed to attract large amount of Chinese investment to bolster the island's economy.

Major South Korean exporters all got a nice boost from the weakness of the country's currency in the past two years. But with the Korean won gaining strength, will Korean exporters begin to lose some of the market share they accumulated in the past year?

"We have seen this in Japan in the 1980's. I certainly hope that China is not going to repeat the mistakes that Japan made 20-30 years ago," said Dong Tao, chief Asia economist of Credit Suisse.

China's growth may surge to as much as 12% in 2010, thanks to a rebound in exports and domestic spending.

Japanese exports in November 2009 fell at the slowest pace in more than a year on strong Asian demand, easing concern about the strength of the country's economic recovery.

Robust German exports have helped calm fears that the economic recovery in Europe's largest economy is losing momentum.

Japan's economy in third-quarter 2009 grew sharply less than initial estimates as cautious companies decided to save, not spend.

South Korea's economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter of 2009, fuelling hopes that Asia's fourth-largest economy is making a solid recovery from the global downturn.

South Korea expects exports in 2010 to grow 12.9% from this year on a global economic recovery and imports to rise 21.5%, producing an estimated US$20 billion trade surplus, the government said.

Japan's central bank has said it was watching currency movements "with great concern" as the yen traded at a 14-year-high against the dollar. The surging yen could set back a recovery from Japan's worst post-war recession because it makes the country's exports less competitive.

Figures released by the Japanese government show that the country's economy has grown for a second successive quarter.

China's National Bureau of Statistics says the country's latest economic data shows it is well on track to meet its target of 8% growth this year. The statisticians also see evidence in the data that Chinese consumers are starting to make more of a contribution to economic growth here.

Exports hit a one-year high of US$19.8 billion in October 2009, as a recovery in the world's economy boosted demand for Taiwanese-made electronics, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Finance.

In January, China's exports to its Southeast Asia neighbors counted for around one third of that to the EU. Eight months later, China's exports to Asean countries had grown to the equivalent of about half of exports to the EU.

Gross domestic product during the July-September period expanded 2.9% from the second quarter, according to the Bank of Korea. That was the most rapid pace since the first quarter of 2002.

The International Monetary Fund has warned Asian nations not to withdraw their stimulus spending too soon.

The Obama administration has made increasing US exports a key part of its strategy to reduce unemployment and is moving on several fronts to do that, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has said.

Japan's exports fell by the smallest margin in 10 months in September, showing a deep slump in the world's second-largest economy may be easing.

South Korea must diversify its export markets in order to achieve a sustainable expansion of overseas shipments and prepare for the possibility of another global economic crisis, according to a government report.

Japan's export recovery slowed in August, pointing to slower growth in production and fuelling concern that the economy may lose momentum as the impact of stimulus spending around the world fades.