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Environmental and public health groups from various
countries lodged a collective protest against Japanese
free trade agreements (FTAs), which they assert is part
of Japan’s disturbing plan to establish waste colonies
in Asia.
In a
“fax action” held in conjunction with the Kenkoku Kinen-no
hi or Japan’s National Foundation Day on 11 February,
civil society groups from over 17 countries sent letters
to Japanese ambassadors to voice their concern and
objection to bilateral FTAs that blatantly encourages
trade in hazardous wastes.
The
groups also sent copies of the letter to the
Secretariats of multilateral environmental agreements
such as the Basel Convention, Stockholm Convention on
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as the Human Rights
Commission Special Rapporteur on Toxic Wastes.
Japan
signed bilateral FTAs with Asean member states such as
Singapore in 2002, Malaysia in 2005 and the Philippines
in 2006 and is currently working on similar agreements,
in various stages, with India, Indonesia, Thailand,
South Korea, Vietnam and other countries.
“We join
our Asian neighbors, including our friends in Japan, in
standing firm against the illegal and immoral scheme to
make our countries dumping grounds for Japanese toxic
wastes, technologies and obsolete end-of-life products,”
Manny Calonzo of the Global Alliance for Incinerator
Alternatives (GAIA) said in a statement.
GAIA
described the “fax action” as part of a vigilant
campaign to prevent efforts by more powerful countries
to exploit nations that are poorer and with weaker
regulations and social infrastructures into becoming
disposal sites for toxics.
To
emphasize its point, the groups cited the case of the
controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership
Agreement (JPEPA), which contains disturbing provisions
that will allow unhindered entry of globally controlled
or prohibited wastes and substances from Japan,
including extremely toxic materials with heavy metals
and persistent organic pollutants such as
polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins.
The
statement issued by the Japanese Embassy in Manila in
October 2006, saying that Tokyo does not allow any
export of toxic and hazardous wastes to another country,
including the Philippines, unless the government of such
a country approves such export, failed to dispel the
fears of concerned groups.
As Japan
marks its National Foundation Day, the groups asked the
ambassadors and international bodies to relay their
demands to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the concerned
ministries for the removal of waste trade liberalization
and other exploitative provisions in the JPEPA and other
FTAs that Japan plans to forge with other countries.
The
groups further seek
Japan’s
immediate ratification of the Basel Convention’s Ban
Amendment, which prohibits the export of toxic wastes
from developed to developing countries for any reason.
The
civil society groups also expressed apprehension about
the Japanese initiative to promote the 3Rs (reduce,
reuse, recycle) that many view as another scheme to
circumvent barriers to hazardous waste export in the
guise of recycling and remanufacturing. |
