US advised to initiate GM trade war - WikiLeaks

The cables, which date back to 2007, say Europe was moving ‘backwards not forwards’ on biotechnology with France ‘playing a leading role’

US ambassador Craig Stapleton wrote the cable in direct response to the French decision to ban Monsanto GM maize. He advised the US Government to undertake retaliatory measures to ‘cause pain’ and change minds in Europe.

“Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory.

He added: “Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices.

“In fact, the pro-biotech side in France – including within the farm union – have told us retaliation is the only way to begin to turn this issue in France.”

Julian Little, chairman of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC), the umbrella group for the agricultural biotechnology industry in the UK, said information in the cable ‘came as no surprise’ given France and certain other countries in the EU were ‘non-compliant’ with WTO trade rules on biotechnology.

He added retaliation measures had not been necessary because Europe had ‘begun to turn the corner’ by ‘listening to the science’ and reaching a more common sense approach to biotechnology. 

However, Graham Harvey agricultural author and co-organiser of the Oxford Real Farming Conference, said: “It is appalling for the US to use political leverage to lean on Europe on this issue. It is not about politics it should be about what consumers want.”

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