CANADIAN VIEWS ON UNECE EFE MINISTERIAL

UNCLAS OTTAWA 000869 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CAN (Running) OES/ENV (Matuzak) IO (Turak) GENEVA for Poulton E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV EAID EU IO KSCA AORC CA SUBJECT: CANADIAN VIEWS ON UNECE EFE MINISTERIAL REF: SECSTATE 75080 ¶1. EST Counselor and EST Specialist made the demarche requested in reftel to Jean-Louis Wallace of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). According to Wallace, Canada shares USG concerns about the draft Environment for Europe ministerial declaration. Wallace indicated that he and others in GoC had been dismayed as the draft declaration expanded in scope. Like the U.S., Canada would like to see the declaration deal primarily with issues that have broad consensus within the ECE and less with issues that only have limited support or that apply only to specific UNECE sub-regions. ¶2. Our discussion with Wallace revealed that Canada shares nearly every point of U.S. concern noted in reftel. Wallace told EST Counselor and EST Specialist that there would be an interagency meeting, including DFAIT and Environment Canada, in Ottawa this week at which he would bring our demarche up for discussion, and he intended to circulate USG talking points to his interagency colleagues prior to the meeting to facilitate further coordination. Wallace also told us he would be very willing to participate in a conference call with U.S. counterparts in the run-up to UNECE meetings to coordinate positions. Cellucci