VZCZCXRO6717
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV
DE RUEHFR #4170/01 2771427
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041427Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0652
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RUEHMRE/AMCONSUL MARSEILLE 1913
RUEHSR/AMCONSUL STRASBOURG 0491
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2744
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 004170 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA FOR ACTING SECRETARY CONNER AND DEP U/S TERPSTRA 
FAS FOR ADMINISTRATOR YOST 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR SENV ETRD EU FR
SUBJECT: FRANCE REEVALUATES BIOTECH POLICY; MUCH AT STAKE 
 
REF:  (A) PARIS 4139 (B) PARIS 3970 (C) PARIS 3967 
 
PARIS 00004170  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
1.(SBU) Summary: A moratorium or ban on planting biotech corn could 
be the signature outcome of France's national environmental policy 
review this month.  Such a move would violate both WTO and EU 
requirements, but the Sarkozy Administration may be looking for a 
high-profile green initiative to balance its strong pro-nuclear 
policy and a "pro-American" foreign policy.  French farmers and seed 
companies are pushing back and the Mission Country Team is lobbying 
GOF counterparts before raising the issue to ministerial level.  End 
Summary 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Sarkozy Administration's national environmental policy 
dialogue (the "Grenelle") is one of its signature initiatives. 
Agriculture and biotechnology figure prominently in the process. 
Most proposals emanating from the Grenelle dialogue are not overly 
controversial, but biotech is emerging as the wedge issue.  Minister 
of State Borloo, leading the process, told parliamentarians in a 
widely reported statement that GMOs could not be controlled and 
posed unacceptable risks.  Center left "Le Monde" reported that the 
GOF would ban commercial sales of biotech seeds.  The chair of the 
Grenelle's biotech committee explained that a moratorium rather than 
a ban was envisioned pending new biotech legislation. 
 
3.(SBU) Borloo's statement blindsided Agriculture Minister Barnier 
who was booed off the stage at a major conclave of farmers the same 
day.  The FNSEA farmers' union as well as GNIS, the seed 
association, walked out of the following session of the Grenelle 
working group, and were brought back in only after Borloo 
backtracked assuring the Farm Union FNSEA, that President Sarkozy 
will make any final decisions, after the report from the "Grenelle" 
is published, likely in late fall. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The "Grenelle" biotech working group published its 
preliminary conclusions on September 27.  The report is subject to 
debate and comment for the next several weeks.  Its principal 
recommendations were: 
 
-- a new biotech law (which the GOF will need in any event to comply 
with the EU coexistence directive) based on freedom of choice to 
produce and consume with or without GMOs; 
 
-- incorporation of the "polluter pays" principle with regard to 
contamination of crops by transgenic material, without specifying 
whether farmers or seed companies would be deemed the "polluters"; 
and 
 
-- creation of a single "High Biotech Authority" incorporating a 
range of scientific expertise and additional expertise from civil 
society groups. 
 
5.(SBU) The working group report also stressed that the 0.9 percent 
threshold for biotech content in the EU labeling requirement for 
food and feed had no particular scientific basis.  The group 
highlighted that no threshold had yet been established for labeling 
of planting seeds.  French seed industry representatives were quick 
to assert that the 0.9 percent threshold was set by the European 
Union and applies to all member states and both the seed industry 
and farm union officials threatened to sue the GOF at the European 
Court of Justice (ECJ) should the GOF set a lower threshold. 
 
¶6. (SBU) French biotech corn production (all MON 810) rose from 
5,000 hectares in 2006 to over 21,000 hectares in the 2007 planting 
season.  While farmers and seed companies have kept a very low 
profile on this shift, the Grenelle process has raised the stakes 
substantially.  On October 3, a coalition representing 325,000 
farmers published an open letter to President Sarkozy in major 
national papers.  The letter appeals to the President not to give in 
to the GMO fear-mongers, noting that authorized GMOs pose no health 
risk and reduce pesticide usage and therefore contribute to "green 
growth." 
 
¶7. (SBU) Farm organizations also said they would sue if the GOF 
imposed a moratorium.  Given that national bans of EU-approved 
varieties are WTO illegal (the EC reiterated its opposition to 
national biotech bans the day after the "Le Monde" revelation, 
underscoring that the ECJ had recently condemned Austria's biotech 
ban), the GOF might opt to accomplish the same result by suspending 
sales of MON 810 seeds pending scientific review or enacting a 
biotech law that would make its production economically unviable. 
 
¶8. (SBU) In the short term, a biotech ban or moratorium would cut 
 
PARIS 00004170  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
U.S. seed exports, now running $30-50 million annually.  More 
significantly, it would signal an about-face from a science-oriented 
approach by France on EU  biotech issues including US corn exports. 
France is a driver of EU farm and agricultural trade policy and will 
assume the Presidency in July 2008.  Embassy Country Team members 
are coordinating with U.S. seed companies and are calling on a 
variety of GOF officials to express our concerns before raising the 
issue to Ministerial level. 
 
STAPLETON