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UN PLAN WOULD GIVE EXPORTERS CLEANUP LIABILITY BODY

GREENBASE

Greenwire November 3, 1998 -- A UN proposal being negotiated in Geneva under the Basel Convention on hazardous-waste transport would make exporters of hazardous materials pay cleanup costs associated with foreign buyers' disposal of the materials. Under the proposal, a foreign country's local courts would be allowed to determine who is responsible for a hazardous-waste cleanup. Officials in the company's home country would then be empowered to seize the firm's assets, and negotiators are considering language that would allow other countries to seize a foreign company's assets on their territory. But exporters would not be held liable if the dumping is the fault of a third party such as a carrier.

The proposal stems from a deep-seated feeling among environmentalists that rich nations, engaging in a form of 'environmental colonialism,' are sending their waste to poor countries for a cheap, quick dumping." Kenny Bruno, a toxics specialist for Greenpeace: "The further away it goes, the easier it is for companies to escape accountability."

But J. Thomas Wolfe, VP of DC-based Capital Environmental and founder of an exporters' coalition opposed to the proposal, says most of the shipped byproducts at issue -- those from metal, plastics, pharmaceutical and oil production -- are reused in other manufacturing processes. Wolfe: "(The proposal is) undermining the whole concept of sustainable development."

Wolfe added that the proposal could affect up to $9 billion in exports of metal byproducts alone (Jack Lucentini, Journal of Commerce, 11/3).

[Entered Greenbase November 4, 1998 ]
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