Despite having seen rising tension on the iron-ore front, the total trade between China and Australia has gone up.

A research done by CommSec has shown that China has replaced Japan as the biggest trading partner of Australia. Japan has been the reigning nation for last 4 years.

The data shows that Australia exported more than $42 billion of goods and commodities till February, 2010. This is against Japan's figure of $35 billion. Most of the commodities that were traded were related to iron and ore.

The figures also showed that the two-way trade between the two nations was $50 billion for the eight months ending February. It was up from the figure of $37.4 billion which was reported for the same period last year.

Economists feel that this shows that Australia's dependence on China has increased. While most of this is in the field of iron and ore, it does not mean that other sectors have not been a part of this story.

Even other companies have shifted their manufacturing units to China. This too has added to the total trade.