BERLIN (AP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany and China - the biggest economies of Europe and Asia - want to increase their annual bilateral trade volume to (euro) 200 billion ($284 billion) by 2015.
Merkel spoke at a joint economic forum as she welcomed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and many of his ministers to Berlin Tuesday on the last leg of a three-nation European trip.
Trade between China and Germany totaled just over (euro) 130 billion last year, a 38.5 percent increase compared with 2009. China was the No. 7 buyer of German exports, at (euro) 53.6 billion; and it led the list of importers to Germany, which bought Chinese goods and services worth (euro) 76.5 billion.
Merkel says China is now Germany's third-biggest trading partner but "we both take the view that what is good can become better."
China overtook Germany as the world's biggest exporter in 2009.