US rejects germ warfare treaty

The US today rejected a draft treaty designed to give teeth to an anti-germ warfare accord.

‘‘In our assessment, the draft protocol would put national security and confidential business information at risk,’’ said US chief negotiator Donald Mahley in Geneva.

He said Washington still supported the 1972 UN treaty banning the use of biological weapons, and would come up with new proposals on how to enforce it.

Nations have been negotiating for seven years to come up with a treaty on enforcing the germ warfare treaty, painstakingly working through disagreements over the 210 page document.

Mahley said the United States could not support the treaty even if amendments were made.

‘‘The draft protocol will not improve our ability to verify Biological Weapons Convention compliance. It will not enhance our confidence in compliance and will do little to deter those countries seeking to develop biological weapons,’’ he said.

‘‘We believe we can strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention through multilateral arrangements. To be valuable, however, we believe any approach must focus on effective innovative measures.’’

He said the United States would come up with ‘‘new, affirmative ideas’’ for going forward.

‘‘There is no basis for a claim that the United States does not support multilateral instruments for dealing with weapons of mass destruction and missile threats,’’ he said.

When the treaty was created during the Cold War, negotiators left out enforcement details because no one seriously thought anyone would ever try to use germ warfare.

The United States has taken a leading role in the push for such provisions since Iraqi armaments discovered after the Gulf War showed the treaty had been useless in stopping countries from developing biological weapons.

The draft being negotiated in Geneva is intended to create a way to inspect sites suspected of developing biological weapons without interfering with legitimate industries and facilities.

Tibor Toth, the Hungarian diplomat who chairs the negotiations, said almost all the countries negotiating in Geneva had said they supported the draft treaty. He would not comment on the United States position until he had read Mahley’s speech more closely.

The 143 nations that have ratified the treaty set a November target to complete the enforcement provisions.