Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 8 • Number 20 • 14th November 2008
Asbestos, Endosulfan Remain Off Trade Watch List at PIC COP 4
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A recent meeting on dangerous chemicals made limited progress, as parties to the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides failed to agree on the treatment of two still actively traded chemicals.
The fourth Conference of the Parties (COP-4) of the Rotterdam Convention met in Rome, Italy, from 27-31 October. The PIC Convention demands that recipient countries in trade interactions are aware of and accept the dangers associated with the chemicals they import. Currently, 39 chemicals are listed as requiring the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure. The conference sought to add three more chemicals to the list, as recommended by its subsidiary scientific body. However, only tributyltin compounds (TBT) was listed – with parties failing to agree applying the PIC procedure to chrysotile asbestos, which has been controversial for years, as well as endosulfan.
The two latter chemicals are still in active use, and major exporters strongly opposed their listing under the PIC procedure, fearing this would hamper their trade – even though the PIC procedure by no means bans trade as such.
Canada bans the domestic use of chrysotile asbestos. However, the country still exports the carcinogen for use in cement in developing countries. While Canada officially remained silent on the asbestos issue at the Rome meeting, India, a major importer, actively lobbied to keep it off the PIC list. Several non-governmental organisations came out strongly against their governments’ positions.
Madhumita Dutta, of the NGO Corporate Accountability Desk in India, said “millions of workers in India are getting exposed to asbestos every day. India is not only failing to protect its own people but is obstructing other countries their right to protect their people.” Canadian opposition Member of Parliament Pat Martin said “Canada’s defence of asbestos has nothing to do with reason or logic or economics. It’s all about domestic politics,” stressing that an industry employing only 700 people is maintaining its grip on the government on this issue.
”Endosulfan kills two cotton producers each month in Benin during application period,” said Remy Jonas Ahoyo, president of Benin-based NGO GAPROFFA. “It increases poverty, causes birth defects and reproductive harm, and degrades the environment. Benin has just taken the step to ban endosulfan, but, many other African countries have not, and they should at least be able to use the Rotterdam Convention to be informed about imports from India, China and the European Union (Germany).”
The fate of the two chemicals will be taken up at the next COP.
Among the successes of the meeting, participants agreed to arrange a “super-COP,” clustering all chemicals conventions – the Rotterdam Convention, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants – in 2009. This would allow for further collaboration between the convention, capturing synergies, coordinating implementation and sharing resources.
Additional resources
For a complete report of the meeting, see IISD’s Earth Negotiations Bulletin at http://www.iisd.ca/chemical/pic/cop4/
ICTSD reporting; “Summary of the Fourth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention,” ENB, 3 November 2008; “Conflict at the Rotterdam Convention: Handful of Asbestos and Endosulfan Producing States Denying the Right to Information for Other Countries,” CNW RELEASE, 29 October 2009; “Canada keeps asbestos off trade blacklist: MP,” REUTERS, 30 October 2009.
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