AMBASSADOR RIES CALLS ON GREEK MINISTER OF

UNCLAS ATHENS 000574

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR ECON GR AMB
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RIES CALLS ON GREEK MINISTER OF
AGRICULTURE



1. (U) SUMMARY: Ambassador Ries paid an introductory call on
Greek Minister of Agriculture Evangelos Basiakos on February

22. Ambassador discussed the USG's three prime objectives
for agricultural trade with Greece: (1) to retain the U.S.
market for conventional corn- and cotton seeds for planting
in Greece; (2) to recover the $12 million wheat market in
Greece; and (3) to gain the GoG's support for restarting U.S.
poultry meat imports into the EU. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) In a meeting with Minister of Agriculture Basiakos
on February 22, Ambassador Ries addressed issues whose
resolution will help promote agricultural trade between the
U.S. and Greece. First, Ambassador urged that the GoG should
follow a clear, scientific standard when testing conventional
corn and cotton seeds for adventitious presence of biotech
material. Basiakos responded that the GoG continues to
follow the 2001 Greek Ministerial Decision and has not
imposed additional restrictions. In the spring of 2004,
however, the GoG intensified testing for adventitious
presence so as not to be caught out by "gotcha" NGO testing.
The Greek Ministry of Agriculture increased the testing
sample size and increased the incidence of testing with the
consequence of positive findings for biotech content in 75
percent of the seed lots tested -- compared with less than 10
percent under the previous interpretation. Because the
essence of the issue is the GoG's interpretation of the
Ministerial Decision, Ambassador noted that the U.S. is
asking the GoG to change its approach to the protocol rather
than the protocol itself.


3. (U) Second, Ambassador encouraged the GoG to take steps
to allow U.S. wheat to re-enter the Greek market. After the
1996 discovery of karnal bunt in the U.S., the U.S. lost the
$12 million wheat market to Canada when Greece instituted a
difficult and scientifically unjustifiable protocol for
karnal bunt testing. A 2000 Greek Ministerial Decree allows
the importation of U.S. cereals, however, some of its
elements pose undue risk to traders. For example, the length
of time an importer must await laboratory testing results
while the cargo is kept in declared storage facilities is
unspecified -- this poses a risk to the importer, who is
responsible for the cargo, despite it being out of the
importer's control. While Greece has imported very little
U.S. wheat since 2000, it has imported Mexican wheat seeds
for planting without imposing karnal bunt restrictions on
these seeds despite the fact that Mexico is also affected by
karnal bunt. Further, Ambassador noted that Italy has
developed a scientific method that allows for the importation
of good quality U.S. wheat, and he offered to engage Italian
officials to help overcome this issue in Greece.


4. (U) Finally, Ambassador urged the GoG to support a change
in EU regulations to allow the resumption of poultry meat
imports from the U.S. Although the EU banned imports of U.S.
poultry meat because of chlorine use in U.S. production
facilities in 1997, the U.S. and EU have since resolved the
relevant scientific health and safety issues. EU members,
however, are linking the U.S. poultry issue to the EU swine
fever issue and refusing to restart U.S. poultry imports.
Ambassador argued that the EU should not link sanitary and
phyto-sanitary (SPS) issues. Basiakos replied that the U.S.
should not link the rice dispute to Greek peaches.
Ambassador distinguished the rice dispute by noting it
related to a market access binding the EU was proposing to
break. The WTO is based on an exchange of market access
commitments, and provides for withdrawal of concessions in
cases where a member fails to meet obligations. This is
different from the SPS provisions, where WTO members are
obligated to implement controls consistent with science and
health requirements, but are not authorized to link one SPS
action to another.
RIES