Defoliant inquiry faces dead-end

Press, 2 November 1989, Page 2

Defoliant inquiry faces dead-end

By

PETER LUKE

in Wellington

A Parliamentary select committee has been confronted with an American deadend as it grapples with a 20-year-old mystery across three continents.

Before the Foreign Affairs and Defence Select Committee is a simple question. Was the Agent Orange defoliant made in New Zealand by Ivon Watkins-Dow, Ltd, and sent to the United States during the Vietnam War? The Vietnam Veterans’ Association of New Zealand told the select committee yesterday that it was “most likely” that Agent Orange components were made and supplied by the company.

Ivon Watkins-Dow was adamant in its submission that it never made Agent Orange or supplied any chemicals to the United States Defence Department. Small quantities of 2,4,5-T were exported to the United States in the late 19605, but in a chemical composition which could not be converted for use in Agent Orange, said the submission. There was no evidence that the two .p.qtiipafiieg L .whifch"' . imported - this were implicated in American litigation over Agent Orange.

The select committee heard evidence that between 1967 and 1970 there was an upsurge in the American defoliant programme in Vietnam. New Zealand exports of weed-killers rose from $6250 worth in 1966-67 to $60,692 worth in 1967-68 and $71,000 the following year, returning to nil the year after.

Available Government-statistics do not specify which type of" weedkiller or which companies were included, although Ivon Watkins-Dow did confirm that its exports of 2,4,5-T had risen then. “Too much of a coincidence,” was the

comment of a select committee member, Mr Geoff Braybrooke. Mr Braybrooke (Lab., Napier) served in Vietnam in the late 19605, and recalled that it was “common knowledge” that Agent Orange, or the “old brown syndrome,” came from New Zealand.

But in response to questions from Mr Trevor Mallard (Lab., Hamilton West), a company spokesman agreed there was another explanation for the coincidence. Because of the American military demand for 2,4,5,-T imports were needed for domestic use in the United States, said the company’s research manager, Mr Bob Moffatt.

His company understood that the 2,4,5T exported to the United States was used to control weeds on that country’s West Coast.

Attempts by Ivon Watkins-Dow to contact the two American importing companies have met a dead-end, as neither company still existed in its own right, said the submission. “We have been able to confirm, ho we ver, .that neither. of., these, companies was a defendant in the American Agent Orange court litigation which reached its conclusion in 1984.” This was consistentwith a recent Pentagon statement that Agent Orange came only from the United States.

Ivon Watkins-Dow’s own export papers for the 2,4,5-T no longer exist — the company is not required to retain twodecade old records — but it said that existing informal shipping records “conclusively 'demonstrate” that neither Agent Orange nor its constituent chemicals were supplied to the American Armed Forces.

The select committee has requested that the company supply these records.