Bill Targets U.S. Sale of Chemicals for Warfare

WASHINGTON — A group of Republican lawmakers, frustrated by the U.S. failure to staunch the flow of chemical weapons materials to Third World nations, proposed legislation Thursday that would punish firms attempting to sell such components to four Middle East countries.

The bill, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and five GOP colleagues, targets the sale of such products to Libya, Iraq, Iran and Syria, countries suspected of developing chemical weapons. It would establish sanctions for firms that try to sell them chemical ingredients, equipment or technical services needed for chemical weapons production.

The measure broadens Congress’ response to the recent use of poison gas by Iraq against the Kurdish minority in that country. Two weeks ago, the Senate unanimously adopted legislation imposing economic sanctions on Iraq for such attacks.

On Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent to the floor a bill that would block all U.S. trade with Iraq until the President certifies that Baghdad had ended its use of chemical weapons. The House will vote Tuesday on the measure, which would cancel $200 million in U.S. government credit guarantees and $600 million in agricultural credits.

‘Strong Weapon’

In introducing the bill, Dole called economic sanctions against supplier companies “a strong weapon” in the effort to prevent the spread of chemical weapons in the Middle East.

“Scrupulous or not, any businessman with an ounce of sense is not going to do business with (Libyan leader Moammar) Kadafi for peanuts if it means risking the vastly greater economic benefits of access to the American market,” he said.

For U.S. firms, the bill would make it a crime to sell chemicals, equipment or services to the four Middle East nations “which would materially assist them to attain a chemical warfare capability.” Punishment would be fines of up to $50,000 and prison terms of up to five years.

Further, the measure would close American markets for as long as five years to any foreign firm that the President concludes has provided such goods or services.

The Reagan Administration has opposed the broad imposition of trade sanctions against Iraq, arguing that an international effort to isolate Baghdad diplomatically would be more effective than a ban on U.S. sales. It had no immediate comment on the Senate bill.

But one State Department official noted that the latest bill “focuses more on the supply side than on the demand side” and therefore is more acceptable.

A 1925 international agreement outlaws the use of chemical weapons. The United States and 39 other countries currently are negotiating an accord in Geneva that would ban the production, possession and use of such weapons.

A Senate aide involved in drafting the new bill said that it could subject a Japanese company, Nihon Seijoko, or Japan Steel Works, to the sanctions. The Japanese firm reportedly has helped Libya build a metallurgical complex capable of producing chemical weapons.

Crucial Chemicals

According to recent accounts in the Wall Street Journal, a U.S. firm and several West German firms have sold Iraq specialized chemicals that are crucial to the production of poison gases used in recent attacks on civilians in Iraq’s Kurdish region.

“This bill sends a message to other Japanese companies and to the Europeans that this is bad business: You get caught, and you’re going to get held up as an accessory to mass murder,” said a Senate Foreign Relations Committee aide involved in drafting the bill.

On Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report that contained detailed eyewitness accounts of Iraq’s chemical weapons use on 30 Kurdish villages in late August. It said that hundreds of thousands of Kurds may have died in the attacks.

Although Iraq has denied using such weapons, Secretary of State George P. Shultz earlier this month said the United States has “conclusive evidence” that Iraq used poison gases to crush the Kurdish rebellion.