VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHFR #0405 0781739
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191739Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5813
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RUEAUSA/HHS WASHDC
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 3015
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC

UNCLAS PARIS 000405 
 
SIPDIS 
 
BRUSSELS PASS USEU FOR AGMINCOUNSELOR 
STATE FOR OES; EUR/ERA; EEB/TPP/ABT/BTT (BOBO); 
STATE PASS USTR FOR MURPHY/CLARKSON; 
USDA/FAS FOR OA/HALE; 
OCRA/NENON; 
ONA/RIEMENSCHNEIDER/YOUNG/DENNIS; 
OFSO/YOUNG; 
STA/JONES/PORTER/WETZEL/CHESLEY 
EU POSTS PASS TO AGRICULTURE AND ECON 
GENEVA FOR USTR, ALSO AGRICULTURE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR SENV ECON ETRD EU FR
SUBJECT: U.S. and French Corn Growers Discuss Biotech 
 
REF : (A) 2007 PARIS 4170 ; (B) 2008 PARIS 1071 (C) 2008 PARIS 0011 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: U.S. and French corn grower representatives met 
on March 17 to discuss biotech.  French reps urged the U.S. team to 
encourage U.S. retaliation in the WTO case against the EU for its 
defacto moratorium on GMOs.  The U.S. team expressed great concern 
about France's shift in biotech decision making from a science-based 
system to one emphasizing societal preferences and noted the need to 
combat this tendency, especially in Brussels. End Summary. 
 
¶2.  A high-level U.S. team representing the U.S. Grains Council 
(USGC) and National Corn Growers' Federation (NCGF) visited France 
on March 17 to discuss biotech with their French counterparts. 
Prior to the meeting, Ag M-C briefed team on the situation in 
France, including the national environmental review in 2007 (ref A) 
(which resulted in the dissolution of the previous, science-based 
competent authority) and the establishment of a socially-oriented 
biotech review process (ref B), which resulted in a ban on biotech 
corn cultivation in France.  She also reviewed the results of the 
December 4 EU Environmental Council meeting, at which France 
received unanimous support for pushing for changes in the biotech 
decision-making process at the EU level (ref C).  U.S. team 
expressed great concern about France's shift in biotech decision 
making and noted the need to combat this tendency, especially in 
Brussels. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) When the U.S. team asked their French counterparts (who 
are strong proponents of biotech cultivation and whose members' 
cultivation had reached 20,000 hectares before the ban) how they 
could support them, French reps replied that the U.S. should "make 
us pay" in the WTO biotech case.  They encouraged retaliation on a 
product like Champagne that would bring high level pressure on the 
Sarkozy government.  They also opined that the selection of 
Roquefort cheese in the beef hormone case was ineffectual and only 
strengthened the hand of Jose Bove and the foes of so-called 
industrialized agricultural imports. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Comment:  We are hearing this argument from French corn 
growers with increasing frequency.  It likely reflects their 
calculation that domestic pro-biotech forces will remain too weak to 
push the government off its politically-popular anti-biotech stance. 
 The Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Commission told us 
recently he detected the beginning of a shift in public discourse on 
GMOs.  But so far we see little evidence to support this. 
 
PEKALA