SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday instructed goverment officials to take confident, resolute measures against U.S. protectionist moves in bilateral trade.

"Regarding unfair trade protectionist actions, (the government) should take confident and resolute measures, such as the filing (of a complaint) with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the review over whether (the U.S. action) violates the S. Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA)," Moon said.

Moon gave the instruction during a weekly meeting with his senior secretaries, according to the Blue House.

The president also ordered officials to actively point out the unfairness of the U.S. safeguards against South Korean products in negotiations with the United States to revise the South Korea-U.S. free trade pact.

The bilateral FTA, which took effect in 2012, has bee under negotiations to amend as U.S. President Donald Trump called it a "horrible" deal.

Moon's remarks came after the U.S. commerce ministry announced plans last week to impose high import tariffs, as high as 53 percent, on steel and aluminum products from countries, including South Korea.

The U.S. administration decided on Jan. 23 to slap safeguards against washing machines and solar cell imports from countries, including South Korea, by levying high import tariffs on them.

Moon said the U.S. import restrictions on South Korean exports, including steel, electronics, solar cell and washing machines, were feared to disrupt the country's export that has an international competitiveness.

South Korea's export expanded 15.8 percent in 2017, marking the fastest export growth among the world's top 10 exporting countries. The country's export ranking was raised by two notches to the sixth in the world last year.

Despite last year's export growth, Moon said, trade protectionist moves were strengthened in addition to uncertainty over the foreign exchange rate and global crude price.

Moon ordered a close review and a comprehensive policy package to tackle the recent moves that affect the export of South Korea, while rapidly pushing for innovative growth to improve the country's export competitiveness.