The move comes after local garment and ceramics producers have repeatedly warned that a trade agreement with China could erode their competitiveness and lead to thousands of job losses.

"We are determined to protect those less competitive industries by introducing necessary redress measures into the agreement," a spokesman at the economics ministry told AFP.

Any measures would comply with World Trade Organisation rules, he said. Both China and Taiwan are members of the organisation.

Among the planned measures to be discussed in negotiations expected next month will be anti-dumping actions, subsidies and countervailing duties, and import controls to safeguard domestic industries, the spokesman said.

A survey released by National Taiwan University last week showed six out of 10 Taiwanese were against the trade pact known as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement.

President Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang, who took office last year, is forging closer ties with China and arguing the trade agreement could lift the island's economic growth by one percentage point.

However, the opposition, which favours independence from China, has warned the pact could imperil the island's separate status.

Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still considers the island part of its territory, vowing reunification, even if it has to use force.

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