np-does this worry anyone else?

[David Morris]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50299-2001Jul25.html

Almost all of the other 55 nations represented at the talks supported the 
protocol. European, Canadian and Japanese officials agreed that the draft 
was imperfect but argued that it was better than nothing and could be 
improved.

Some diplomats also described the U.S. rejection as the latest example of 
unilateral action by the Bush administration, following its opposition to 
the Kyoto agreement on global warming, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, 
proposals at the United Nations to curb international trade in small arms, 
and efforts to establish an international court for genocide and war crimes.

"The U.S. decision is totally regrettable," said Ken Echi Okada, first 
secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Washington. "In addition, the U.S. did 
not show better ideas which could be substituted. . . . We have 
fundamentally had to change the negotiation process because of this, which 
is extremely difficult."


>From: "cj hurtt"
>
>"In our assessment, the draft protocol would put national security and 
>confidential business information at risk."
>— Donald A. Mahley, chief U.S. negotiator at a forum on biological weapons 
>in Geneva, telling delegates that the United States is abandoning talks on 
>enforcing a treaty banning germ warfare.
>


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