A minimum of 12 cross-border trades between Hong Kong and the mainland were conducted in renminbi on Tuesday, one day after the government launched a pilot scheme to allow trade settlement in the Chinese currency, the South China Morning Post reported. The US$1.1 million worth of transactions were all trade remittances. The mainland on Monday launched a scheme allowing 300 firms in Guangdong to use renminbi for trade settlement with firms in Hong Kong, Macau and members nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). China is seeking to eventually transform the yuan to an international currency and reduce the country’s dependence on the US dollar. Separately, HSBC said that US$2 trillion worth of cross-border trade settlement could be conducted annually in renminbi within three years. This would equal around half of the mainland’s total trade and make the renminbi one of the world’s top three currencies.