Why is Bill Clinton so eager to have the Chemical Weapons Convention ratified?
In a February 4th letter to National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed grave reservations about a treaty that President Clinton is eager to have ratified. Helms charged that the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) does not "effectively cover the types of chemicals used to manufacture chemical weapons. The CWC contains Schedules which identify specific chemicals for the application of verification measures," the senior senator from North Carolina conceded. "However, those lists fail to include more than one third of the chemical weapons precursors already controlled by the United States and its allies."
Citing "mounting evidence that Russia continues to pursue the development of new chemical agents," Helms identified "two obvious means by which the CWC's verification regime can be evaded." One means of evasion is by production of chemical agents "which are not on the CWC's Schedules and therefore are beyond the capability of inspectors to detect." Another evasive technique involves the development of "binary agents," lethal compounds whose combining elements, in their separate states, can be "readily explained as commercial chemicals."
Helms argued that the Chemical Weapons Convention "will not do one thing to reduce the chemical weapons arsenals for terrorist countries and other nations hostile to the United States. Roughly one third of the countries identified by our government as possessing chemical weapons have not even signed the CWC, let alone ratified it," he warned. "Yet those countries -- among them Libya, Syria, Iraq, and North Korea -- are the countries most likely to use chemical weapons against America or our allies." Helms emphasized that Russia "has consistently refused to agree to implement its commitments to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile, despite the 1990 U.S.-Russian Bilateral Destruction Agreement."
Helms concluded that "verification of the CWC is plagued by the fact that too many chemicals are dual-use in nature. Chemicals used to make pen ink can be used to make deadly agent," he explained. "It is impossible to monitor every soap, detergent, cosmetic, electronics, varnish, paint, pharmaceutical, and chemical plant around the world to ensure that they are not producing chemical weapons, or that toxic chemicals are not being diverted to the production of weapons elsewhere. Countries such as Russia," he warned, "are well aware that, if they ratify the CWC, they can cheat with impunity."
The Chemical Weapons Convention won't stop the development of chemical weapons in unfriendly nations, but it will stifle the production of legitimate consumer goods here in America. Helms predicts that "as many as 8,000 companies potentially will have data declaration and/or inspection obligations under the CWC. Firms that manufacture anything from dyes and pigments, insecticides, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, nylon, paint and varnish, electronics, textiles, and soap and detergent . . . all will be subject to multinational regulation under the CWC." The question that needs to be asked is, Why would President Clinton want to hamstring American businesses?
