South Korea and the European Union have agreed to work together to respond to trade protectionism.

Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Saturday that it held the seventh bilateral trade committee meeting with the European Commission in Brussels on Friday.

During the meeting led by Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, the two sides agreed to jointly respond to the spreading global trend of trade protectionism based upon the South Korea-EU free trade agreement which took effect in 2011.

The two sides also agreed to coordinate measures regarding the United States' push to impose safeguard restrictions on solar power equipment.

In October, the U.S. International Trade Commission submitted a recommendation to President Donald Trump advising safeguard measures to protect U.S. manufacturers of solar panels from foreign imports.

The deadline for this decision is next Friday.

Seoul's trade ministry will also strengthen cooperation with the EU on trade protectionism on the world stage at multilateral trade regimes such as the World Trade Organization, the Group of 20 nations and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).