China has zipped past the United States as the European Union's largest trade partner after bilateral trade rose to EUR35.6 billion in July, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said.

Citing the latest statistics from Eurostat, the ministry said trade between China and the European Union totaled EUR35.6 billion ($49.4 billion) in July, allowing the country to overtake the US.

The overall value of China-EU trade in July exceeded that of the EU and the United States by EUR800 million, accounting for 13.4 per cent of the region's total imports and exports, according to data released by the EU's statistics office.

However, bilateral trade shrank for a second consecutive month in July, falling 0.8 per cent from the same period last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, China remained the EU's second largest export market. EU exports to China totaled EUR11.7 billion in July, up 12.3 per cent year-on-year, which is higher than EU's total export growth rate of 4.1 per cent.

The EU imported EUR23.9 billion in Chinese goods, down 6.2 per cent from the previous year. But China still held the top spot as the region's import source, making up 17.4 per cent of the EU's total imports.

The EU reported a 12.2-billion-euro trade deficit with China in July.