Brussels/Seoul, 03/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - those responsible for customs in the Union and 9 Asian countries, meeting this week in Seoul, welcomed the Korean initiative to harmonise procedures and customs systems in Asia, which have been drawn from the European experience. Participants at this meeting, which ended on Wednesday in the evening, reaffirmed at this event, their commitment to strengthening their cooperation to create an environment that was more favourable to trade between the two regions. Their Korean host, Customs Commissioner, Kim Yong-duk, declared, "We actively shared our points of view on facilitating and making trade safe by exchanging new ideas". This ASEM session that should have taken place last May had to be postponed because of the restrictions on travel associated with the SARS epidemic, obviously tackled the follow-up to the failure of the Ministerial conference in Cancun where facilitation of trade figured in the particularly controversial controversial package of so-called Singapore subjects. The European Commission representative presented a report on this subject to customs leaders by underlining the need to assess the demands of WTO member countries and their priorities in the selection of projects to facilitate trade, including initiatives focusing on strengthening the trade capability of developing countries.