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