SPAIN WILL LIKELY SUPPORT U.S. METHYL BROMIDE

UNCLAS MADRID 004431 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR OES/ENV (JULIE GOURLEY AND JOHN THOMPSON) AND EUR/WE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV AORC EAGR ETRD PREL SP SUBJECT: SPAIN WILL LIKELY SUPPORT U.S. METHYL BROMIDE CRITICAL USE EXEMPTION REQUEST REF: STATE 245175 ESTHOFF made reftel points November 19 to MFA Environmental Affairs Office Director Teresa Molina Schmid, underscoring our concerns about the arbitrary methods the Montreal Protocol's technical body employed in responding to our 2006 Methyl Bromide Critical Use Exemption (CUE) submission, and requesting GOS support for our original 2006 CUE at the November 22-26 Prague meeting of the parties to the Protocol. Molina said that Spain would likely support the original U.S. 2006 CUE, as Madrid was also disappointed with the response it had received to its own CUE request. She noted that Spanish strawberry growers had encountered problems in finding effective substitutes to Methyl Bromide. This had led to Madrid's CUE request and Spanish sympathy for other countries facing a similar problem. Molina said she would fax our points to the Spanish delegation, which had already left for Prague. She called ESTHOFF back later November 19 to confirm that our talking points and nonpaper had reached the Spanish delegation in the Czech capital. ARGYROS