This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 002062 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/WE-JLEVIN, EUR/EX, L, M/R, EB/TRA/MA-SMILLER 
CBP FOR OIA-KTHOMSEN, RBONNER, AND AGINA 
ICE FOR FOREIGN OPS DIVISION 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AMGT AODE EWWT FR
SUBJECT: GOV OF FRANCE QUESTIONS STATUS OF CSI PERSONNEL 
 
REF: BERLIN 927 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  The Government of France is considering 
asking the U.S. to change the current status of U.S. Customs 
and Border Protection Container Security Initiative personnel 
working at the port of Le Havre.  CSI Le Havre personnel 
currently hold "administrative and technical" status.  The 
GOF says that some other EU member states -- not the European 
Commission -- are pressing for all EU member state 
governments to grant the same level of status to U.S. CSI 
personnel in all EU ports -- most likely an "Official 
Mission" ("en mission") status with no diplomatic immunity 
and few privileges.  The request, likely to be repeated in 
other EU capitals, calls for a coordinated USG response -- 
involving all relevant agencies including State and DHS -- to 
look at short- and long-term implications of the options 
available to the U.S.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Embassy Econ MinCouns, ICE Attache, Embassy HR 
representative and econoff met with Foreign Ministry 
DAS-equivalent for transportation, infrastructure and energy 
policy Jean-Claude Nolla at his request on March 24.  Nolla 
wanted to discuss informally the question, recently raised in 
an EU council committee meeting by other EU member states, of 
the status of Customs and Border Protection officials 
staffing the Container Security Initiative in various ports 
in EU countries.  He was joined by two additional Foreign 
Ministry officials:  Francois Naucodie from the Strategic, 
Security and Disarmament Directorate and by Rene Levarey from 
the Protocol office. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) France has already granted Administrative and 
Technical (A&T) status to CSI personnel in Le Havre, which 
affords them diplomatic immunity from prosecution stemming 
from any action taken during the performance of their 
official functions as well as other tax and import benefits. 
CSI in Marseille is active but its staff has not yet been 
declared to the Foreign Ministry for accreditation.  Nolla 
said that the GOF now had a problem with the A&T status of 
the Le Havre personnel for three reasons:  1) CSI team 
members were not engaged in diplomatic work and their current 
status did not correspond to the reality of the activity they 
performed; 2) CSI team members are not physically located at 
a diplomatic mission even though they are currently 
"attached" to the American Presence Post in Lille (consular 
district divisions would more logically put them under the 
authority of Embassy Paris, he said); and 3) other EU member 
state governments which host CSI teams have raised the CSI 
personnel status issue in Brussels and argued that EU member 
state governments should grant the same status to all CSI 
personnel in EU ports. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Nolla made it clear that, for the GOF, reason 
number three -- the fact that several member states felt 
strongly about having a common approach to CSI personnel 
status and were revisiting the issue -- was by far the most 
pressing rationale for the GOF to raise the issue with the 
U.S. at this time.  He acknowledged that the GOF was in an 
uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the U.S. having already 
granted A&T status to Le Havre personnel yet now, under 
pressure from other EU member states, questioning whether 
that was the right decision.  Nolla said the Commission was 
not involved in this issue and that the UK, the Netherlands 
and Germany were pushing hardest for a common approach to the 
status question even though the Netherlands had also already 
given CSI personnel at Rotterdam A&T status. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) On the positive side, Nolla stressed that the GOF 
was in no way calling into question the CSI project itself or 
its mission with French Customs to prevent weapons of mass 
destruction from being secreted into maritime shipping 
containers.  He said the GOF remained committed to the 
CBP/French Customs bilateral Declaration of Principles that 
set out the operation of the CSI program in France. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Nolla explained that the GOF planned to further 
discuss and coordinate with its EU partners, and suggested 
that in the meantime, the U.S. consider "Official Mission" 
status (in French, "En Mission") for CSI personnel.  While EU 
member states were not officially proposing "Official 
Mission" status at this time, he said, Nolla made it clear 
that it may be an acceptable alternative as it better 
reflected what CSI team members actually did.  He said that 
the GOF's eventual decision on the matter would be in 
coordination with its EU partners in an effort to harmonize 
the status of CSI personnel in all affected countries. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) In any case, the status of current CSI staff 
members in country would not change, Nolla said, and any 
future GOF decision to alter the status would only be applied 
to new CSI arrivals.  He suggested we meet again to discuss 
the issue in about two weeks after Embassy had consulted with 
Washington. 
¶8.  (SBU) Embassy personnel were mostly in listening mode but 
pointed out that Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy, 
in addition to France, all have granted the same A&T status 
to CSI personnel.  We also said that CSI Le Havre, although 
under APP Lille for proximity purposes, operated under the 
direction of the U.S. Ambassador in Paris.  We agreed to 
maintain contact and respond after discussing the issue with 
relevant USG agencies. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) ACTION REQUEST:  The Embassy anticipates that the 
question of status of CSI personnel will be raised in all EU 
member states that host CSI programs.  The U.S. will likely 
need a coordinated interagency review of the short- and 
long-term implications of our options.  Further, since CBP 
offers CSI as a reciprocal program and invites participant 
countries to send customs officers to major U.S. ports to 
target outgoing maritime container cargo, Washington agencies 
may wish to prepare for the possibility of EU countries 
requesting not only program reciprocity, but also reciprocity 
of status in the treatment of their customs officers in U.S. 
ports.  So far, the GOF has not raised the issue of 
reciprocity of status for any French Customs officials 
eventually assigned to U.S. ports, and we are not aware that 
the GOF is considering a reciprocal program at this time. 
LEACH