Brussels, 23/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - With the approach of the EU-Japan Summit on 28 May, BusinessEurope has sent a letter to Presidents Herman Van Rompuy of the European Council and José Manuel Barroso of the Commission calling for efforts to be demanded of Japan prior to opening negotiations on a bilateral free-trade agreement. “The perception from European business is that progress in removing barriers (to trade) and the further 27 'illustrative non-tariff barriers' raised by the EU in the High Level Group, has been rather slow and that the results achieved so far fall below our expectations. … This work constitutes a necessary first step to build trust between our two economies that real progress can be achieved on trade and investment liberalisation”, states the European employers' organisation. “A free-trade agreement with Japan will be possible only when effective and comparable market access is demonstrated for European companies in Japan. The major obstacles in the Japanese market encountered by European companies are complicated and convoluted non-tariff barriers and regulatory divergence”, BusinessEurope goes on. It says that the Japanese government needs to “fully commit” to removing “sensitive obstacles” to trade and investment and to open its market where it has “peak tariffs”, for example on agriculture, processed foods, leather and footwear, on EU products. (E.H./transl.rt)