tokens: According to official journals published recently by Mexico 's Treasury Department , Mexico 's foreign trade in 1997 continued to grow rapidly , the total amount of imports and exports reached 220.178 billion US dollars , 18.85 % higher than that of the previous year , and within that the amount of exports was 110.380 billion US dollars , the amount of imports was 109.798 billion US dollars , 15 % and 22.7 % higher than 1996 , respectively .