CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): URGING CANADA

UNCLAS OTTAWA 002740

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

THE HAGUE FOR CWC DEL, ALSO FOR EMBASSY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL CA
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): URGING CANADA
TO RECONSIDER ITS POSITION ON CAPTIVE USE OF SCHEDULE 1
CHEMICALS

REF: OTTAWA 2690 AND RELATED

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. HANDLE ACCORDINGLY.


1. (SBU) Charge and Political Minister Counselor took the
opportunity of a meeting with Foreign Affairs Assistant
Deputy Minister (between A/S and U/S level) Jim Wright to
raise USG concerns about the potential proliferation loophole
caused by failure to address "captive use" of CWC Schedule I
chemicals.


2. (SBU) Wright said that following his Friday conversation
setting up the meeting with Charge, he checked with Canada's
National Coordinator, Bob Brooks, who told him this
essentially had been resolved in the most recent discussions
in The Hague. Wright said Brooks was aware of a "fix", and
the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and others were all on board. If
this was not the case, Wright said, we should get in touch
with him right away.


3. (SBU) In a subsequent conversation with polmiloff and POL
M/C, Brooks affirmed that general agreement on a resolution
had been reached. The only outstanding item was Canada's
desire for a "blanket exemption" and USG's strong preference
for addressing exemptions on a case-by-case basis. Brooks
said he did not believe that Canada would stand in the way of
resolving the captive use issue by insisting on a blanket
exemption, assuming that some language could be found to
stipulate that the cases should be dealt with in an
expeditious fashion.

Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa

DICKSON