Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan says the economic ministers of the Asia–Europe Meeting(ASEM) member countries will focus on ways to solidify the multilateral trade system when they meet in Seoul later this year.

Joo made the remark on Tuesday in Seoul as he sat down with an advisory committee to prepare for the two-day ASEM Economic Minister’s Meeting that begins on September 21st.
 
Noting the meeting's first reopening in 12 years, he said that the event holds more significance as measures need to be devised for fundamental changes in the face of expanded protectionism and the fourth industrial revolution.
 
The ASEM Economic Minister’s Meeting is a gathering in which trade and economic ministers of Asian and European countries discuss ways to facilitate and expand regional trade and investment as well as ways to boost economic cooperation.
 
The last such meeting was held in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands in 2005. The meeting was suspended due to discord between some ASEM members. It will reopen in Seoul after 12 years as proposed by South Korea. It will run for two days starting from September 21st.