France secures support to limit scope of EU-U.S. trade talks

BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - France has secured backing from other EU member states for the exclusion of the movie and television industries from a proposed free-trade pact between Europe and the United States that it fears could threaten European culture.

France, which is considering a tax on technology giants Apple and Google to finance cultural projects, has long defended a "cultural exception" in trade affairs to protect European arts from Hollywood-driven market forces.

Paris threatened in April to block the start of the EU-U.S. negotiations on the deal unless the audio-visual industry is excluded from the talks.

French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti has convinced 13 EU counterparts to sign a letter expressing concern that the powerful U.S. movie business in particular could drown out European culture.

"The European position to exclude audiovisual services from such negotiations must be clearly expressed from the outset," said her letter to the culture minister of Ireland, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.

The letter said the exclusion should extend to digital media.

Some EU member states believe ringfencing culture could prompt reciprocal U.S. action, weakening any trade deal and its power to create growth and jobs.

The United States and the European Union aim to start negotiating a Transatlantic free trade pact by June, embracing half of world economic output and a third of all trade. A deal could add 0.5 percent to the EU economy and 0.4 percent to the U.S. economy by 2027, according to the European Commission.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht has said the "cultural exception" is not up for negotiation and that member states would still be able to subsidise the industry and set quotas.

However, he has argued that the audiovisual sector should be included in the talks so that EU businesses could benefit from future developments, such as in digital media.

Despite France's defence of its own entertainment industry, many French are avid watchers of Hollywood movies.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in Washington on Monday that the talks on the proposed pact should cover everything, even "difficult" issues.

Nevertheless, French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq says other EU states are rallying to the French position.

"Little by little, we are being joined by other countries," she told a news conference on Tuesday. "It is hard to imagine that Europe's second largest economy would not get this mandate."

Ireland aims to secure agreement on a common EU negotiating stance at a meeting of trade ministers set for June 14.

(Reporting by Luke Baker and Philip Blenkinsop and Nicholas Vinocur in Paris; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)