TAIPEI: Taiwan and the mainland will begin talks on a trade agreement in December, Ma Shao-chang, deputy secretary-general of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation, said yesterday. He added the accord will be discussed at cross-Straits negotiations on cooperation in the fishing industry, certification of agricultural and industrial goods and double taxation.

"We will be signing agreements on the four items and will exchange views on the trade agreement at the talks in Taichung, central Taiwan," Ma said by telephone yesterday. "But there won't be any signing of a trade accord at this stage," he noted.

Cross-Straits dialogue resumed last year, following a nine-year hiatus, when Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou took office and abandoned his predecessor's pro-independence stance. The island is seeking closer ties with the mainland to support an economy that may contract at a record pace this year on declining exports and investment.

Zheng Lizhong, deputy head of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, unexpectedly flew into Taipei yesterday for talks with his Taiwan counterpart Kao Koong-lian to complete details of the meeting, due to be held in the second-half of December, Ma said. Officials met in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province in East China, last month to arrange the talks.

The two sides eased curbs on investment and lifted a six-decade ban on direct transportation links in December under the cross-Straits dialogue.

The trade accord, known as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), will create as many as 263,000 jobs in Taiwan and bolster exports, the economic affairs authorities in Taipei said last month.

Closer ties with the mainland, the world's third-largest economy and Taiwan's biggest trading partner, may help Ma Ying-jeou speed the island's recovery from its first recession since the technology bubble burst in 2001.

Huang Hsien-lin, a spokesman for Taiwan's economic affairs authorities, declined yesterday to comment on details of the trade agreement.

Taiwan's gross domestic product may shrink 4.04 percent in 2009, its biggest contraction since the government began keeping records in 1952, the island's statistics bureau said on August 21.