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Barcelona
Sets Precedent for Basel Ban
The majority of
countries in the Basel Convention have repeatedly asserted a
strict waste trade ban from rich to poor countries. Monaco,
Israel and Slovenia are now objecting. Sound familiar? The
same scenario occurred on 1 October 1996 in Izmir, Turkey as
the Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the
Mediterranean Sea against Pollution (Barcelona Convention)
adopted the "Protocol on the Prevention of Pollution of the
Mediterranean Sea by Transboundary Movements of Hazardous
Wastes and Their Disposal." The protocol prohibits the
export of hazardous and radioactive wastes to non-OECD
countries and those Parties that are not members of the
European Community are prohibited from importing hazardous
and radioactive wastes.
Faced with requests from
Slovenia, Israel and Monaco to be excluded from the ban, the
Parties decided that for the purposes of the protocol,
Monaco is part of the OECD and the European Community. The
decision was based on the fact that Monaco shared a common
customs policy with France and had no intention of
importing hazardous wastes. The requests from Israel and
Slovenia were denied because these countries were seeking
imports of toxic waste. It was ruled that the desire to
perpetuate hazardous waste trade for economic reasons was
in direct conflict with the aims of the Barcelona Convention
to minimize production of hazardous waste.
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