AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

	October 25,1999
	U.S. Ambassador to France Felix Rohatyn speaks to Jim Lehrer about American-French relations and his role in maintaining them.

JIM LEHRER: Now, a conversation with the U.S. Ambassador to France, Felix Rohatyn. He was a New York investment banker before assuming the Paris post two years ago. He spoke today in Washington at the National Press Club about relations between the two countries. Mr. Ambassador, welcome. FELIX ROHATYN: Thank you, Jim. JIM LEHRER: What's the single most important thing Americans should know about France right now? FELIX ROHATYN: Well, I'm not sure there is a single most important thing. France is a very complicated country. It's a very important ally of ours. It is at the same time a commercial competitor of ours. It is a cultural alternative to the United States. It's the oldest democracy, together with us, with a very different view of the priorities of democracy as opposed to ours. It is central to the construction of Europe. It has been one of the two founders of the Euro, the new currency, together with nine other European countries. But France and Germany were the driving force. It is a very complex country that is at the same time extremely modern in terms of its industry, its private sector, extremely state involved. The French state takes up more than half of the French Gross National Product. JIM LEHRER: Compared to say in the U.S., which is 30 percent. FELIX ROHATYN: 32 percent. It is very nervous about certain aspects of globalization especially whether it means Americanization, whether if France succumbs to the global pressures that it will become sort of a smaller version of America. JIM LEHRER: They don't want to be... excuse me. They don't want to be a smaller version of America. FELIX ROHATYN: No, they certainly don't. JIM LEHRER: Why? What's the problem with that? FELIX ROHATYN: It is a philosophical problem. I think France is...one of the things that makes it so interesting, France views herself as a philosophic alternative, a philosophic democratic alternative to the United States, with a different set of priorities. I mean, French priorities are on social protection and equality. Our priorities are on opportunity and risk. These are completely contradictory in terms of philosophy. France sees that these big differentials of wealth and income that we have here are unacceptable in a democracy -- and yet understands perfectly well, for instance, that in order to have a very flourishing high technology industry, which is what's required in the 21st century, that you have to tolerate these big differentials in wealth because they are created by the entrepreneurs themselves who create this industry. So you have a feeling of sort of living in this world of contradictions. Two weeks ago, the French Assembly was vigorously debating the 35-hour week, which is the legislation currently going through. At the same time there was a huge conference in Paris of high technology CEO's of the Internet and E-commercial talking about things that make the normal definition of the workweek completely obsolete because it just doesn't exist anymore. JIM LEHRER: And they are going on at the same time? FELIX ROHATYN: They are going on at the same time. They are going on very fast. I mean, France is at the same time with a socialist government privatizing even the largest defense companies. I mean, they've just merged their biggest defense company with a German company in order to make themselves more ready for a European defense industry and a European defense force. JIM LEHRER: When you said a moment ago, just to pick up on something you said a moment ago, here in the United States, as you know, there's a lot of talk about, well, we are the only superpower and a lot of things flow from there, what's the French view of there only be being one superpower? FELIX ROHATYN: They don't like it. In fact, they call us a hyper power, not a superpower, which is the definition of the French foreign minister who is very, very smart. And his definition is that we're beyond a superpower because we're a military superpower, we're an economic superpower, a financial superpower, a political superpower, and a cultural superpower. Essentially with all of this -- and I think they're probably right -- that our - we bring along with all of these things, the American culture, which actually most of like very much, but which overwhelms them beginning with the language. So they feel themselves kind of surrounded by this enormous being. And we are an enormous being, because we're a continental economy. We're not a nation state, which sort of comes at them through the movie screen, through the jet planes, through our economic power, through...through any number of things that happen. JIM LEHRER: Well, this recent thing about the McDonald's in France, this guy trashes a McDonald's and becomes a national hero. The president of France, the prime minister of France say he's a terrific person. What's that all about? Explain that to us. FELIX ROHATYN: Well, that is about food basically. It was because the French objected to our importing into Europe some types of genetically modified foods and some hormone beef. I mean, I won't bore you with the subject because you really don't want to know. But that provoked a huge backlash in France based on their cultural relationship with food. France is basically also, even though a huge agricultural exporter, is very rural. It's a country of small farms, of old farms, of people who are close to the soil. And they view this attack by us presumably as an attack on their culture, on their habits, on their being used to having a good bottle of wine and a wonderful piece of cheese and whatever. One way farmers in France are actually very prone to go out into the streets and to trash people around. So this gentleman, Mr. Beauver, who was actually a farm labor union leader, trashed this McDonald's and later apologized because they realized that McDonald's is actually a very important French employer. I mean McDonald's employs 30,000 French people and only serves French products. So, I mean, he was a bit off base in this, but the symbol... the symbol was there. And when you view France this way, it is... you know, as we come into the 21st century, it is quite an extraordinary thing. JIM LEHRER: You're talking about Europe a moment ago and France's big role in that. You say in your speech today that Europe was still very much a work in progress. FELIX ROHATYN: That's right. JIM LEHRER: What exactly do you mean by that? FELIX ROHATYN: Well, Europe is now economically and financially a unit, if you will, because there is a single currency and a single market. JIM LEHRER: And that's working, isn't it? FELIX ROHATYN: It's working very well. The capital markets in Europe are booming for the first time. In the third quarter of this year there were more mergers and acquisitions in Europe than in the United States. There were, I think, 370 billion to 310 billion. So, that part of it is working very well. But Europe is still not a military power. There is no such thing as a European military. They're going to begin to try to put something together. And, whether they actually put the money at stake that is going to be required, that's still an open question. JIM LEHRER: We still dominate that field, don't we? The military? FELIX ROHATYN: Completely. And that's been one of the problems coming out of the Kosovo war is that there has been now a kind of a reality check in Europe about the huge technological gap between our military and theirs, especially in certain areas of precision-guided weapons, et cetera. So there is a big political push now for a European defense initiative in which France actually is very much in the forefront of. But as one looks at the military budget, still not much has happened on the contrary. So militarily Europe...there is no such thing yet as Europe. And politically there is just the beginning, the European Union has appointed a person to be essentially their foreign minister. But there is no European political... they haven't made the steps that we did from the Articles of Confederacy to a federation. They haven't even made the articles of confederacy. There is a European Union, there is a parliament but for the moment that's about it. JIM LEHRER: On a personal note, is it difficult to represent the United States of America in France right now? FELIX ROHATYN: Well, it's difficult because we have to explain things that they find very difficult to understand... to accept, if you will. On the other hand, is it difficult for a Polish Jewish refugee who came here at age 13 in 1942 to represent this country in France? No, it's not difficult. It's fantastic. It's the greatest experience in my life. JIM LEHRER: And being involved in all of this, you also are involved very much in this country politically and financially before you went over there -- we're about to, we've been talking about it, we're about to have a presidential election. Forget the parties, forget the candidates, what should these candidates be talking about based on your perspective from being gone for two years, as the U.S. Ambassador? FELIX ROHATYN: They should talk about America's continued involvement in the world. We're beginning to hear a lot about American isolationism. I don't believe in American isolationism. I think that is out of the question. It can't happen. I think it's totally against our interests even though there are some clearly isolationist strains in this country. But if I had one message that I would like to come out of the next presidential election, it is that America will continue her role of international leadership, her commitment to the values that we represent, that America, even though it is a superpower, respects her allies, consults with her allies, respects their interests -- as well as ours -- and that being the only superpower in the world we're not a threat to anybody but we're a guarantee of a lot of things that people find very valuable, especially people who value freedom. JIM LEHRER: Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much. FELIX ROHATYN: Thank you, Jim.