Chemical arms treaty makes unprecedented demands of industry

Journal Article · Mon Jun 07 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Chemical and Engineering News; (United States)

OSTI ID:6355251

Ember, L R

It took nearly a quarter of a century of grueling negotiations to craft the text of the comprehensive and verifiable chemical weapons treaty. But that may have been the easy part. Now representatives from about 90 of the more than 140 nations that have signed the treaty are at The Hague participating in a two-year exercise called the Preparatory Commission, or PrepCom. PrepCom's charge is to make concrete what are now merely words on paper. When it completes its work, the chemical industry will be ensnared in a web of requirements far surpassing any mandated by existing domestic legislation. PrepCom's agenda was scripted by the same Conference on Disarmament negotiators who labored in Geneva hammering out the treaty banning the production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical weapons. They wanted to make certain that a structure was in place to monitor and verify compliance with the treaty once it entered into force, or becomes effective. The negotiators' agenda was approved by those countries that signed the treaty this past January in Pairs. It set out some 40 individual tasks for PrepCom, many of them highly technical and most of them potentially politically volatile. This paper discusses the problems facing PrepCom.

• OSTI ID: 6355251
• Journal Information: Chemical and Engineering News; (United States), Journal Name: Chemical and Engineering News; (United States) Vol. 71:23; ISSN 0009-2347; ISSN CENEAR
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

350101* -- Arms Control-- Policy
Negotiations
& Legislation-- Treaties-- (1987-)
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS
CONSTRAINTS
DATA ACQUISITION
EDUCATION
IMPLEMENTATION
INDUSTRY
MONITORING
ON-SITE INSPECTION
SAFETY
TRAINING
TREATIES
VERIFICATION
WEAPONS