TREASURY DEPUTY SECRETARY KIMMITT MEETS GERMAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BERLIN 000274

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/11/2017
TAGS: EFIN ETTC PTER PREL GM IR
SUBJECT: TREASURY DEPUTY SECRETARY KIMMITT MEETS GERMAN
FINANCE STATE SECRETARY MIROW ON SANCTIONS, SWIFT, AND
TRANSATLANTIC ECONOMIC ISSUES


Classified By: EMIN Robert F. Cekuta for reason 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert
Kimmitt met with German Finance Ministry State Secretary
Thomas Mirow February 8 to review key bilateral and
transatlantic economic issues. Discussing international
sanctions on Iran and North Korea, he noted the progress that
had been made while pointing to the need for further steps
that the EU and its members should take to push Tehran and
Pyongyang to end their proliferation activities. Raising
SWIFT, Treasury Deputy Secretary Kimmitt noted the levels of
protection in place in the U.S. to protect data privacy and
the internationally-agreed upon steps authorities need to
take to stop terrorists from using the global financial
system. Mirow thought a practical approach should be found,
but noted the political pressures on the issue coming from
the European Parliament. The State Secretary and the Deputy
Secretary reviewed the Chancellor's transatlantic economic

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initiative, including how it fit into Chancellor Merkel's
push for deregulation in Germany and the EU. The two senior
officials reviewed plans for the February 9-10 G-7 Finance
Ministers Meeting in Essen. Deputy Secretary Kimmitt
expressed concern about the German Government's plans to
restructure the European Recovery Program funds and move a
sizable portion of the funds into the KfW, the same bank
where the German Government places the shares of
government-owned, or formerly government owned companies such
as Deutsche Telekom. Responding to Mirow's questions on the
Doha Development Round, the Treasury Deputy Secretary
stressed the need to move as soon as possible on agriculture.
Mirow noted the window of opportunity for Doha is small and
pointed to the number of expected changes of Government in
Europe. End Summary.

Iran


2. (C) Deputy Secretary Kimmitt offered his appreciation for
Germany's role in the EU implementation of UNSCR 1737,
especially with regard to encouraging the Europeans to move
beyond the strict letter of the resolution. He highlighted
EU willingness to ban financial transactions and freeze the
assets of those individuals and organizations covered by the
resolution. It is important that the measures taken extend
to financial dealings and not cover only exports and visas.
Referring to his discussions with German banks, Kimmitt said
he advises them that it is almost impossible in Iran to know
your customer -- a point on which the U.S., Germany, and
other countries agree. UNSCR 1737 has increased the
political risk in accessing finance to do business in Iran;
export credits should not be used to effectively subsidize
costs associated with that risk, or activities in support of
the government's illegal conduct. The USG is not calling for
a cut-off of all financing activities, rather only those tied
to illicit conduct, such as proliferation and terrorism.
Nonetheless, we have seen that even the legitimate Iranian
business community is beginning to put pressure on the regime
for having made it more difficult to access trade finance.


3. (C) Mirow responded Germany had taken measures on trade
finance by implementing a ceiling on credits such that many
requests would not be considered and the focus will be on not
making credits available to those covered under UNSCR 1737.
Germany is trying to achieve a balance by supporting
legitimate trade, but not mitigating the increased political
risk caused by Iran. Treasury Deputy Secretary Kimmitt asked
that the German Government look not just at what the German
company is exporting, but at the other end of the transaction
as well to see who the end-user is and ensure that funds do
not become commingled with moneys that support proliferation
or terrorist activities. Mirow said that they would pay
attention to directing German funds to licit commercial and
cooperative activities.

North Korea


4. (C) Deputy Secretary Kimmitt also warned that North
Korean entities increasingly look to German banks after being
shunned in Asia. In some cases they were being introduced by
Iranians. He offered that the Embassy would provide
follow-up documentation. UNSCRs 1695 and 1718 set out clear
obligations. Kimmitt said that he understood the EU was
ready to act on the North Korean resolutions, but an issue
had come up with how the resolutions would be enforced in
Gibraltar. A dispute over Gibraltar's status as grounds for
holding up implementation is unacceptable and would be
difficult to defend publicly. (Note: On the margins of the
Munich Security Conference on February 10, German MFA State
Secretary Silberberg told Treasury Deputy Secretary Kimmitt

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that the UK and Spain had reached an agreement such that

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implementation of sanctions could move forward, not only on
North Korea but also on Iran.)

TFTP/SWIFT


5. (C) Deputy Secretary Kimmitt noted a bipartisan U.S.
privacy commission, Congress, and legal experts had reviewed
TFTP/SWIFT's activities. They have asked that the program
has exceptional safeguards for balancing the data privacy of
individuals against the need to protect Americans from
terrorism. The USG wants to reach an understanding with the
EU and Deputy Secretary Kimmitt thought that there was little
difference on substance, only on form. EU Commissioner
Frattini has suggested a formal agreement might be required.
However TFTP/SWIFT involves U.S. legal system access to data
that is already in the United States, not held outside the
country as is the case with PNR, so a formal agreement is not
appropriate. An exchange of letters should be sufficient,
along the lines of what was done in a different context in
the NYSE/Euronext merger. The Treasury Deputy Secretary
emphasized that the U.S. wants to finalize this understanding
before the April U.S.-EU Summit.


6. (C) State Secretary Mirow noted that the Commission has
the lead on SWIFT, but no decision has been reached on the
form of an understanding. In late February, representatives
of the German Ministries of Finance and Interior, the
European Commission, and the Council Secretariat will embark
on a fact-finding mission to the U.S. for an in-depth
examination of the issues surrounding TFTP/SWIFT. Afterwards
they will make recommendations. Mirow thought it would be
useless to impose one's privacy system on another, but a
practical approach is necessary. The European Parliament
keenly follows this issue and is pressing the German
Presidency to balance privacy with the need to combat
terrorism. Deputy Treasury Secretary Kimmitt welcomed the
fact-finding mission and said he would like to see greater
attention given to the existing authorities that proscribe
using the banking system for terrorist purposes. There are a
number of international obligations affecting terrorist
financing as is also the case with data privacy.

Chancellor Merkel's Transatlantic Initiative


7. (U) Deputy Secretary Kimmitt said the President strongly
supports, and has instructed that the USG move forward with,
the Chancellor Merkel's initiative. He noted we need both
clear results to announce for the Summit and a process that
will continue afterward. He thought the initiative blended
well with Germany's efforts to adopt a deregulatory approach
in other areas. Of the four areas highlighted in the
Chancellor's initiative, the financial area has the best
existing set of structures, such as the Financial Markets
Regulatory Dialogue. The Treasury Deputy Secretary thought a
Summit statement could reference some of the progress already
taking place; other areas, such as accounting standards,
would require more time to achieve results.


8. (U) Mirow agreed we should not duplicate existing
efforts; the financial "basket" was somewhat special in what
was already underway as compared to where things stand in the
other three areas. Finance Ministry Deputy DG for
International Financial and Currency Policy Wenzel suggested
that the Finance Ministry should contribute to the initiative
and would likely seek a political-level endorsement of
accounting standards and delisting measures. Hedge funds are
off the agenda as they will be covered in the G-7. Treasury
Deputy Secretary Kimmitt said he would like to see something
in the Summit statement opposing investment barriers, which
he sees as an emerging international economic problem.
Treasury will host a capital markets competitiveness
conference in March to which it will invite European
representatives; some of the conclusions might be integrated
into the discussion of Chancellor Merkel's transatlantic
initiative. The President's Working Group in Financial
Markets may provide some initial conclusions of its financial
markets' review in March.

Essen G-7 Meeting


9. (U) Mirow elaborated German plans for the February 9-10
G-7 ministerial in Essen. An initial exchange on hedge funds
would be used to try to reach an agreement on facts and a
common notion of risk. Germany hoped the G-7 could agree on
a work in progress, that could carry through to the Potsdam
meeting and the Heiligendamm Summit in June. Germany seeks a
way that the seven governments can delve deeper into the
subject of hedge funds. Mirow's suggestion is to perhaps
give the FSF a new mandate, asking them to present a report

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to members next year. Mirow expected hedge funds to be
mentioned in a G-7 statement, but mostly in a procedural way.


10. (SBU) Mirow thought it would be more difficult to
discuss the undervaluation of the yen, since the U.S. and
Japan see the issue differently from the EU. The Europeans
have two concerns: the financial stability risk if there were
a sharp reversal to the yen carry trade and the effect of the
devalued yen on exports. With autos, for instance, this
gives the Japanese a two to three thousand euro exchange rate
advantage per car over the Germans. Deputy Secretary Kimmitt
emphasized that U.S. comments on the yen were in response to
questions and not affirmative statements, and were consistent
with what the U.S. says about any openly-traded currency.
Mirow said it is hard to judge whether the Japanese were
manipulating their currency. Germany did not share the same
concerns about the Chinese yuan; Japan was more of a direct
competitor to Germany for exports. But from an EU-wide
perspective, undervalued exports from China are an issue.

European Recovery Program Funds


11. (U) Deputy Secretary Kimmitt expressed concerns about
Germany's planned Economic Recovery Program (ERP) Fund
restructuring, saying that the ERP has been historically
popular and politically noncontroversial, but might not
remain so if it is added to the equity of the Kreditanstalt
fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW). The KfW holds shares in
state-owned, or formerly state-owned companies such as
Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Post and, more recently, EADS,
holdings that have raised U.S. concerns about
anti-competitive practices. Even if there were no plans to
commingle ERP with other funds, the added leverage to KfW's
balance sheet might create opportunities for controversial
uses, Kimmitt noted. Mirow responded that the German
Government is still working out the details and welcomes
expert scrutiny. The Ministry of Economy is restructuring
ERP so as to more efficiently support SME lending. The
intent is not to cast ERP in a bad light.

Doha Trade Talks


12. (U) In response to Mirow's request for a prognosis on
Doha, Deputy Secretary Kimmitt replied that the U.S. accords
top priority to this effort but that the window for concrete
progress is tight. The U.S. and the EU need an understanding
on agriculture as early as possible so that an agreement can
be worked out with the emerging economies on other sectors
such as services. Mirow agreed the window for progress is
tight. He outlined some of the obstacles making consensus
difficult for the Europeans involving elections and likely
changes of government in France, the UK, and smaller
countries.


13. (U) Treasury Deputy Secretary Kimmitt has cleared this
message.
TIMKEN JR