Greece Remains Wedded to EC position on Doha, Geographical

UNCLAS ATHENS 001619 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE PASS TO USTR FOR TANUJA GARDE AND DAWN SHACKLEFORD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD EUN KIPR GR SUBJECT: Greece Remains Wedded to EC position on Doha, Geographical Indications, and CBD REF: ATHENS 1569; STATE 104985 ¶1. (SBU) Following the October 23 demarche delivery to the MFA, EconOff re-delivered reftel demarche on November 10 to Tassos Protopappas, Director for International Trade Policy, and Nikos Georgopoulos, Director General for International Economic Relations, with the Directorate for International Trade Policy at the reorganized Ministry of Economy, Competitiveness, and Shipping. ¶2. (SBU) Protopappas asserted that the Doha Round is steadily "slipping" for reasons that go far beyond Geographical Indications and the Convention for Biological Diversity. He repeatedly stated that the United States is playing a large role in Doha's lack of forward momentum, but would not provide any details. Two of his colleagues noted that the United States has failed to outline its position on services -- maritime services in particular. ¶3. (SBU) Geogopoulos noted that Greece does not stray from EC positions in Doha. Greece has no stake in the Convention on Biological Diversity, but does support extending the higher level of protection afforded to wines and spirits to other products. Geogopoulos explained that there was a clear mandate for a mandatory register in 2001, and that to be effective, any register for geographical indications must be mandatory and have legal consequences in other WTO member states. He recognized that the United States prefers to focus on expansion of market access, but argued that "feta piracy" is taking a serious toll on domestic producers. He and Protopappas added that the United States should be on the same page as the EC on this issue, given our export of regional products such as California wines and Florida orange juice. Speckhard