RP wants to ship toxic waste to US

The Philippines wants to ship its toxic and hazardous wastes to the US, but negotiations for the US-RP Agreement on Trans-boundary Movement of Toxic and Hazardous Wastes have been stalled by the country's refusal to allow a two-way traffic that would allow the US to ship its waste here for treatment and recycling.

According to the Economic Mobilization Group (EMG), the negotiation for the agreement was prompted by Intel Technologies and other US semiconductor firms themselves because of the absence of high-technology facilities in the country for the proper disposal and treatment of toxic wastes.

The stand-off is not likely to be resolved soon as the Philippine is standing pat on its "one-way outward" movement of toxic and hazardous waste, arguing that the agreement would benefit Philippine-based US electronics companies with mounting problems of accumulated waste.

Toxic and hazardous wastes generated by industries have been accumulating since the Clean Air Act took effect in 1998 because the government has been unable to find an offshore destination pending the signing of a bilateral agreement required under the provisions of the Basle Convention.

The Basle Convention prohibits the movement of toxic waste between countries that are parties to the convention and non-signatories. The Philippine is a party to the treaty, but the US is not.

The EMG document revealed that negotiations started as early as 1988 but the talks bogged down as the US continued to insist on being able to ship toxic and hazardous wastes into the Philippines where there is no facility that would handle them properly.

"The discussions were few and far in between until some urgency was felt in late 1999 when those wastes started to stockpile in alarming proportions," the EMB document said. "This threatened to delim it the opportunity for future investment and expansion in the electronics industry which accounts for over 70 percent of the country's total exports."