Don Nickles: “This article lists about 20 chemicals that are not prohibited by this treaty, that basically this section of article XI…”

“This article lists about 20 chemicals that are not prohibited by this treaty, that basically this section of article XI says you will be able to sell those chemicals. As a matter of fact, no restriction. This language says that countries cannot maintain amongst themselves any restrictions including those in any international agreements. It does not say some. It says any international agreements. That sounds pretty open. A lot of those chemicals can be used to develop chemical weapons. They can also have a dual purpose. It can be kind of confusing. I understand the President in his letter today said, well, he would try to end the confusion. And so I looked at his letter, and in his letter on page 2 he says--dealing with article X, he said: Using article X to justify providing defensive chemical weapon equipment, material or information to another State Party that could result in U.S. chemical protective equipment being compromised so that U.S. war fighting capabilities in a chemical weapons environment are significantly degraded. If that is the case, he wants out. What is ``significantly degraded''? How do you reach that level. I do not know that you would ever reach--since he has ``significantly degraded,'' I do not know, because the word ``significantly'' is there that it would ever be treated. And then in (b) he talks about where it would be impossible for him to make a certification on the Australia Group.…”