US thwarts deal on biological weapons

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,527566,00.html

US thwarts deal on biological weapons

Special report: Bush's America

Capella in Geneva and Ewen MacAskill

Thursday July 26, 2001

The Guardian

President Bush wrecked another prospective international agreement

yesterday by blocking proposals for toughening the ban on biological

weapons.

His action left the US isolated. Even the British government, which has

tried for the last few months to position itself as Mr Bush's best friend,

expressed despair.

The US, scuppering 10 years of negotiation, announced in Geneva that it will

not support a draft protocol to reinforce the biological weapons and toxin

convention, which was signed in 1972. The protocol would have introduced

verification measures that would have given international inspectors access

to laboratories in the signatory countries.

The US described the protocol as too weak, and said it threatened commercial

interests and national security.

The US, which accounts for 40 % of the pharmaceutical industry, expressed

fears that international inspectors might make industrial and military

espionage easier.

It was frightened by the possibility of the on-site inspections of several

thousand defence plants and companies involved in biotechnology related

work.

Mahley, the US chief negotiator for biological arms control, said:

" We were forced to conclude that the mechanisms envisioned for the protocol

would not achieve their objectives, that no modification of them would allow

them to achieve their objectives, and that trying to do more would simply

raise the risk to legitimate United States activities. "

Measures opposed by the US since Mr Bush became president six months ago

include the Kyoto protocol on climate change and the proposed UN treaty on

the control of small arms. He is also threatening to abandon the

anti-ballistic-missile treaty.

Although the rest of the world agreed this week to press ahead with the

Kyoto protocol on reducing carbon dioxide emissions without the US,

diplomats said it would be pointless for other countries to push ahead with

the verification process without the US, because it had such a big

proportion of the industry.

" The protocol is effectively dead, " a British diplomat said.

Although the biological weapons convention will remain in place, a constant

criticism has been that it is largely useless because it lacks a

verification process. The protocol would have gone part of the way towards

correcting that.

US opposition sits oddly with its hostility towards Iraq, which it accuses

of secretly building up an arsenal of biological weapons and refusing to

admit international weapons inspectors.

The Foreign Office distanced itself from Mr Bush's decision, saying: " We

understand but do not share the US concern and we support the continued work

on the text as drafted. "

A British diplomatic source said there was agreement in London with the US

that the protocol was far from perfect but it was the only thing on the

table, and was better than nothing.

In a sign of British exasperation with the US, British diplomats pressed the

US to at least offer some counter-proposals, but it failed to do so.

British diplomats had also appealed to the US to consider the negative

impact of blocking such a protocol, but again the US failed to respond.

One British diplomat said that a damaging side-effect of the US decision was

that it was a godsend for those countries with something to hide.

Tibor Toth, the Hungarian diplomat leading the negotiations, which were

intended to lead to adoption of the protocol by the end of the year,

lamented the failure of the US to sign up to the key proposals.

" It's very important to foresee that the future protocol cannot work without

the full participation of key players in this area. I think this is an

important message being sent, " he said.

Although many had qualms about some of the proposals, all of the other 55

participants had formally embraced the draft protocol as a basis for an

agreement later this year.

The US said it wanted a different approach that would involve a range of

multilateral and voluntary agreements to ensure transparency.

Mr Mahley indicated that the US preferred a focus on export controls on

biotechnology, which are disputed by developing countries, including Iran,

and surveillance of disease outbreaks.

He admitted that many of the more innovative measures advocated by the Bush

administration had yet to be thought out, and that some of them might not be

acceptable to all countries.

" The United States does not believe that the BWC is 'verifiable' by what we

mean by that word and we cannot think of a way to make it so, and that has

been a consistent position since 1991, " he added.

Among critics in Britain expressing disappointment, Menzies , the

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs specialist, said: " The US is fast turning

into the world's largest 'state of concern' when it comes to international

conventions. "