Minister for Trade Inkyo Cheong held the Indo-Pacific Policy Forum (“Forum”) today in Seoul and facilitated discussions on economic cooperation with ASEAN, Korea’s major economic partner and core region of the Global South. Meanwhile, forecasted outcomes of the Korea-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting slated for September 21–22 in Vientiane, Laos, were also reviewed, including upgrading the Korea-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the Korea-ASEAN trade and economic policy cooperation.


As part of follow-up measures to the Trade Policy Roadmap announced in August, the Forum was attended by a number of ASEAN experts including those from the Korea University ASEAN Center (KUAC) and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP). They exchanged views on issues concerning Korea’s measures for responding to the realignment of the ASEAN supply chain as per the U.S.-China competition, as well as Vietnam’s legislation of key industrial laws and their implications.


In his opening message, Trade Minister Cheong stated that ASEAN, based on its world’s third largest population and fifth largest economy, is expanding its position as the new growth engine for global manufacturing and strategic counterweight in global politics and diplomacy. He shared plans to utilize the Korea-ASEAN FTA, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and such multilevel networks to increase joint efforts on new trade issues like digital transition and climate change, in addition to existing areas of cooperation like trade and investment.