Abstract
To date, the international trade in toxic wastes has caused more significant political damage than actual environmental degradation. It has elicited a new dialogue about the concept of an “environmental factor” in comparative trade advantage. The realities of the waste trading system suggest that the current regime of Prior Informed Consent (PIC) is failing in all ways. Sovereign environmental risk assessment is compromised by information gaps and liability confusion. Our prescriptions for an international waste trading policy reflect the presence of three familiar underlying tensions in international negotiations, which yield lessons for international environmental policymaking.
“This firm's exports to Nigeria, Togo, Senegal, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey had all been authorized by officials of those countries! The Italian government should seek reparations from foreign governments that refused to honor their commitments….” Comments of Renato Pent of Jelly Wax Company, an Italian waste exporter, upon being billed by the Italian government for the costs of politically required waste re-importations.1
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