Canada Again Serves as Roadblock at Rotterdam Convention on Asbestos

In October 2006, efforts to make the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure of the Rotterdam Convention apply to asbestos were blocked by a handful of countries, including Canada. The Rotterdam Convention is an international agreement on hazardous materials.

PIC is not a ban. It is a requirement stating that information is to be made available, and adequate warning of a substance’s hazards is to be made available when that substance is traded on global markets. However, even this mild requirement has been too much for the asbestos industry to accept. Their fear, no doubt, is that such warnings will cause developing countries – Canada is one of the biggest exporters of asbestos – to question the safety of asbestos.

The Canadian government made the usual public excuses about scientific uncertainty but, in fact, a government memo that became public last year proves that Canada backs the asbestos industry for crass economic and political reasons. The existence, or lack of existence, of any scientific doubt about the hazards of asbestos played little role.

On 31 October, at the most recent Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention, Canada once again managed to prevent the PIC procedure from applying to asbestos. Canadian delegates, aware of the embarrassing stance of their position, chose to keep a low profile, but worked behind the scenes to organise and encourage the very few remaining supporters of asbestos to block any progress. Those nations are India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Ukraine, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

It is interesting to note that the Rotterdam Convention binds signatory countries to consider only the hazard criteria. Economic and trade issues are not grounds for excluding a substance from the PIC procedure. How then were the parties able to prevent the inclusion of asbestos under PIC when no one at the October meeting was able to refute the case that all forms of asbestos – including chrysotile – meet the Rotterdam Convention’s scientific and legal criteria?