[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 2 (Monday, January 18, 1999)]
[Pages 49-50]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter to Congressional Leaders Reporting a Certification Required by 
the Ratification Resolution of the Chemical Weapons Convention

January 13, 1999

Dear Mr. Speaker:  (Dear Mr. President:)

    In accordance with the resolution of advice and consent to 
ratification of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, 
Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their 
Destruction, adopted by the Senate of the United States on April 24, 
1997, I hereby certify in connection with Condition (7)(C)(i), 
Effectiveness of Australia Group, that:

      Australia Group members continue to maintain an equally effective 
      or more comprehensive control over the export of: toxic chemicals 
      and their precursors, dual-use processing equipment, human, 
      animal, and plant pathogens and toxins with potential biological 
      weapons applications, and dual-use biological equipment, as that 
      afforded by the Australia Group as of April 25, 1997; and

      The Australia Group remains a viable mechanism for limiting the 
      spread of

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      chemical and biological weapons-related materials and technology, 
      and the effectiveness of the Australia Group has not been 
      undermined by changes in membership, lack of compliance with 
      common export controls and nonproliferation measures, or the 
      weakening of common controls and nonproliferation measures, in 
      force as of April 25, 1997.

    For your information, the Australia Group has not loosened its 
controls on chemical and biological weapons-related items since the 
entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
    Sincerely,
                                            William J. Clinton

Note: Identical letters were sent to J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and Albert Gore, Jr., President of the Senate. 
This letter was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on January 
14.