China is taking steps to increase the volume of goods it receives from Ethiopia, the state-owned Ethiopian News Agency cited Chinese Ambassador Gu Xiaojie as saying.

China is using policy measures such as zero tariffs on products from developing countries and organizing trade fairs for Ethiopian exporters to improve the balance of trade for the Horn of Africa nation, Gu said in an interview, according to the Addis Ababa-based agency.

Trade between China and Ethiopia totaled $785 million in the first half of 2010, an increase of 27.6 percent from the same period last year, ENA cited Gu as saying.

The ambassador said exports to China from Africa’s largest coffee producer increased 163 percent to $215 million in 2009. The value of 1,230 Chinese investment projects in Ethiopia was $2.5 billion, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.