The White House has announced it will continue a Bush administration policy of rejecting a global inspections system for biological weapons. On Wednesday, the Obama administration said the US remains opposed to inserting a new verification protocol in the Biological Weapons Convention. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher made the announcement at a meeting of the convention’s signatories in Geneva.

Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher: “The Obama administration will not seek to revive negotiations on a verification protocol to the convention. We have carefully reviewed previous efforts to develop a verification protocol and have determined that a legally binding protocol would not achieve meaningful verification or greater security.”

The move affirms the stance of the Bush administration, which undermined a seven-year effort for an enforcement protocol at global talks in 2001. The Pentagon, as well as military, drug and biotech companies, have long opposed the enforcement proposal, claiming it could undermine US military and trade secrets.