The government is expanding the nation’s trade commission in an effort to strengthen its safeguard functions and better protect domestic industries from dumping and other unfair practices amid the expansion of global protectionism.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Tuesday that the Korea Trade Commission(KTC) will undergo reorganization as of March 18.

The purpose of the move is to strengthen South Korea’s trade defense in response to the influx of low-cost products due to oversupply from China and the rapid spread of protectionism fueled by the second Trump administration in the United States.

The changes will include the establishment of a dumping investigation support division and a judgment support division under the KTC’s Office of Trade Investigation.

The KTC’s workforce will expand from four departments and 43 employees to six departments and 59 employees, including additional investigation experts, in the commission’s largest reorganization since its establishment in 1987.

The KTC said it expects the changes to improve trade relief functions both quantitatively and qualitatively, adding that in the future the agency will “sternly and quickly investigate unfair trade practices” such as infringements of intellectual property rights to create a fair trade environment and actively protect the country’s industries from dumping.