1. The 31^st meeting of the Republic of Korea-Federal Republic of Germany joint economic committee took place in Berlin on September 19, bringing together about 15 officials of relevant government agencies of the two countries, who were led by Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs of the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yun Kang-hyeon and Director-General for External Economic Policy of Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Eckhard Franz, respectively.

2. In the joint committee meeting, the two sides discussed ways to step up cooperation on trade and investment as well as mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas, including manufacturing, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), new and renewable energy, and information and communications technology (ICT).

° The two sides agreed to continue industrial cooperation on the basis of similarities between the ROK’s “Manufacturing Industry Innovation 3.0 strategy” and Germany’s “Industry 4.0” policy and mainly by building on the outcome of joint research.

° The two sides also agreed to work more closely together to promote technological exchanges between the two countries’ SMEs and to support bids of their startups to build presence in each other’s countries.

° In addition, the two sides agreed to share with each other their policy experiences regarding new and renewable energy; and to seek ways to work together to respond jointly to climate change.

3. In particular, the two sides agreed to explore win-win strategies aimed to resolve both the German shortage of science and engineering experts and the ROK’s youth unemployment issue.

° The ROK side suggested that “an ROK-Germany platform for youth workforce exchanges” be set up as a broker that gathers information on job opportunities and job seekers as well as vocational education and employment support programs of the two countries, and provides that information to those in the other country who need it.

° The two sides agreed to help the young, who, in the ROK, have received professional education and acquired basic proficiency in German, undergo the vocational education program in Germany -- Ausbildung -- to accumulate technological knowledge and experiences required by German enterprises, and then find jobs in the country. To that end, they agreed to discuss models of cooperation, in which employment support and education programs of one country are linked to those of the other.

4. The two sides expressed concern over the growing tide of trade protectionism across the world and agreed to work together at multilateral platforms, including the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the G20, to restore the rules-based free trade order.

° The ROK delegation, in particular, relayed the ROK government’s hope that the European Union’s investigation regarding possible imposition of safeguard measures on steel products -- with provisional measures already in place -- will be concluded without any such measures being imposed; and asked that should such measures be inevitably implemented, Germany cooperate for the exemption of the ROK’s items of interest from those measures.

° With respect to the currently ongoing Brexit negotiations between the EU and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the ROK side asked the German government to work closely with the ROK in order to prevent any negative impact on bilateral trade and investment ties between the ROK and the EU member states, including Germany.

* unofficial translation