US embassy cable - 05OTTAWA1911

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 001911 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/23/2015 
TAGS: PARM, CA, PREL. ETTC 
SUBJECT: WASSENAAR BILAT MEETING WITH CANADA ON MAY 3 
 
 
Classified By: POL M/C Brian Flora. Reason: E.O. 12958, 1.4 (b) and (d) 
. 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: NP/ECNP led an interagency delegation to 
Ottawa to hold bilateral consultations with Canada on various 
Wassenaar issues.  The U.S. and Canada agreed to work 
together in an effort to make progress on enhancing controls 
over items of terrorist use; individual reporting of items 
Very Sensitive List (VSL) items; dual-use denial 
consultation; and developing a Best Practices document for 
Intangible Transfers of Technology.  In addition, both sides 
shared their opinion of potential future expansion of the 
Arrangement.  End Summary 
 
2. (SBU) State, Commerce, and Defense officials met with 
Canadian officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and 
International Trade on May 3 to discuss long-standing and 
priority issues in the Wassenaar Arrangement.  With regard to 
terrorism controls, discussion centered on Wassenaar's 
procedures for identifying new terrorist-related 
items/technologies.  These call for the Ad-Hoc Group of 
Security and Intelligence Experts to identify such 
commodities and forward them, via the General Working Group 
(GWG), to the Experts Group (EG) for study and analysis. 
Canada opined the process lacks specificity and does not 
provide the EG with necessary background and details as to 
why the items were referred to the EG.  It was noted that 
meaningful work is hampered because there is no agreed 
definition of "terrorism."  Both sides agreed to collaborate 
on ways to improve procedures and consider other measures to 
promote progress in this area. 
 
3. (SBU) Canada has had a proposal on the table since 2003 
that would require Participating States to report individual 
transfers of Very Sensitive List (VSL) items, instead of the 
current procedure of submitting an aggregate report. 
Progress last year was held-up, because some EU countries 
said it would not be possible to adopt such a measure if all 
the EU countries were not members of Wassenaar.  With this 
concern mostly addressed (Cyprus has not been invited to 
join, because Turkey is blocking its membership.)  Canada 
thought progress would be able to be made this year and 
planned to discuss this issue on the margins of the May 19-20 
Wassenaar meeting instead of re-issuing the document. 
 
4. (SBU) Another USG priority is obtaining agreement to add a 
dual-use denial consultation mechanism to Wassenaar.  The 
U.S. does not believe such a mechanism would be an undue 
burden to Participating States and would be relevant to a 
limited number of items on the dual-use control list.  So far 
only Russia opposes, though it is possible that France may 
voice objections.  Canada agreed to talk off-line to both 
countries at the upcoming Wassenaar meeting to try to find 
out details of the objections. 
 
5. (SBU) Canada supports the U.S. proposed Best Practices for 
Intangible Transfers of Technology, but thought other 
Participating States would have difficulty with the language 
on "in-country transfers." The GOC agreed to work with the 
U.S. to see if alternative language could be found that would 
facilitate Wassenaar-wide consensus. 
 
6. (SBU) Canada submitted a counter-proposal to the U.S. 
proposal on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) at the 
April Experts Group meeting.  The U.S. thanked Canada for 
this proposal and said it is being worked through the system. 
 Canada's EG official said the intention of their 
counter-proposal was to move forward to enable control of 
newer types of technology that are not currently controlled. 
Canada believes the GNSS control might have to be updated 
once GPS are in place, but at least the discussion was moving 
toward the technical aspects and away from the political 
issues. 
 
7. (SBU) Membership and the Licensing and Enforcement 
Officers Meeting (LEOM) were the last two agenda items. 
Canada suggested that Wassenaar should consider the MTCR 
model, which has created a permanent co-chair.  This allows 
for continuity and enables the group to have much more 
substantive discussions.  Both sides agreed there needs to be 
better coordination and reporting between the LEOM and GWG. 
 
8. (C) On membership, both sides agreed that Wassenaar needed 
to be cautious in its expansion.  It makes sense to expand 
where practical.  South Africa has recently applied.  The 
U.S. said it has not begun review of South Africa's 
application, because we wanted to resolve the issue of the 
other applicants first.  Canada said it has concerns about 
South Africa, particularly how it is dealing with 
unscrupulous arms brokers. 
 
9. (U) USDEL has approved/cleared this report. 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
RODDY