spaceBasel Action News, Vol 1, #1

On 20 March 1997, the ACP/EU Joint Assembly, the parliamentary body within the Lomé Convention, adopted an important resolution regarding the Basel Ban ("Decision III/1") which effectively banned all hazardous waste trade from OECD to non-OECD countries effective at the beginning of 1998. The Lomé IV Convention's parties are the 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) and the 15 member states of the European Union.

The resolution asserts that the Basel Convention decision does not permit bilateral or multilateral agreements as exceptions to the prohibited trade in wastes prohibited by the ban, and further opposed "any weakening of the Basel amendment (and its rationale) through any other proposed exceptions which would have the effect of the allowing of selected non-OECD countries to continue importing hazardous waste from OECD countries beyond the phase out date of 1 January 1998."