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The European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea (EUCCK) yesterday strongly urged Korea to lift trade and investment barriers and inappropriate trade practices in 14 major industries like automobile, shipbuilding and cosmetics.

Unveiling its annual report on trade issues, the organization revealed a concern that the corporate restructuring of large conglomerates or chaebol in Korea has largely been protracted.

The EUCCK, mouthpiece of EU companies doing business here, also raised issues with the labor market, possible chaebol ownership of commercial banks and other trade and investment matters involving main items.

``It worries us when we see that whereas the downsizing of chaebol was a key issue during the economic crisis and it now seems merely to be a shedding of peripheral affiliates, while actually consolidating previous excess capacities of core businesses,'' said EU Chamber of Commerce President Werner Graessle.

He expressed anxiety that there have been inconsistencies from the previously strict government policy not to allow chaebol's ownership of commercial banks, to voices from some quarters lately advocating that this may not be a bad idea after all.

During a press conference at the Shilla Hotel, he also said, ``Organized labor is voicing demands for wage and salary increases in the 15 percent range and putting pressure on the government to repeal labor law restrictions on salary payments for full time union officials, thereby effectively setting the stage for pre-crisis conditions.''

He went on to take issue with the nation's policy pertaining to the liberalization of foreign investment including the takeover of Korean firms by foreign counterparts.

``Unions and chaebols alike with one-sided press coverage, are protesting the foreign takeover of some major Korean private and state-owned enterprises, which at a minimum will create an atmosphere of hostility toward a potential foreign investor,'' he asserted.

Participants at the meeting complained about barriers in trading of major items like luxury goods, cosmetics, liquors, pharmaceuticals and automobiles. They also touched upon logistics, intellectual property rights and shipbuilding.

``The counterfeit situation in Korea continues to be a serious problem for luxury brand owners despite the increase in the level of cooperation between brand owners and enforcement authorities,'' said Patric Szraga, chairman of the chamber's Luxury Goods Committee.

He called on the Korean government to give counterfeiting the same amount of attention they do other crimes to control the problem.

Regarding cosmetics, the commission hopes for an early and positive final Korean review of EU companies' manufacturing standards so that the exemption from self-quality testing in Korea could be in full operation by the end of March.

As for pharmaceuticals, the commission will issue in mid-March a report on the findings of a related investigation which the European industry had requested last year, according to Frank Hessek, head of the European Commission delegation.

``In other fields, such as the automotive sector, we remain concerned about the painfully slow progress in improving market access. Negative consumer perception is still severely hampering the sales efforts even of world leading EU companies which successfully operate in other Asian markets,'' he added.

Regarding the shipbuilding industry, he said, ``We are firmly of the view that indirect Korean government intervention in various forms _ such as guarantees and debt write-offs _ enables Korea to maintain a presence among competitive European yards, their workers and their families, even in market sectors where Europe has traditionally been in a leadership position.''