Aside from provisions which promote hazardous waste dumping by
Japan to the country, the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership
Agreement (JPEPA) also includes provisions which exempt radioactive
materials and "spent (irradiated) fuel elements (cartridges) of
nuclear reactors" among others, from tariff. Greenpeace believes
that the said headings would include wastes from nuclear
reactors.
Despite clear prohibitions against the entry of radioactive
waste into the country's borders, there are apprehensions that the
treaty, once adopted would trump existing laws including Republic
Act 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes
Control Act which supposedly guards against such dangerous waste
shipments into the country.
"JPEPA proponents will probably argue that there is no intention
to trade in nuclear waste between the two countries and that our
existing laws will protect us from such shipments. If the intention
is not there, then why include these waste provisions in the first
place? By
encouraging the trading of radioactive and toxic waste, the
agreement only increases the risk that these dangerous materials
will end up in our shores one day. The Philippine Senate must not
ratify JPEPA unless all nuclear and toxic waste dumping provisions
are scrapped ," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia toxics campaigner
Beau Baconguis.
Both countries were on the verge of concurrently ratifying the
free trade pact, until civil society and environmental groups
protested against provisions that would allow Japan to export its
hazardous wastes to the Philippines. The JPEPA has been made public
following its signing by the Japanese and the Philippine
governments.
"It is highly immoral and unjust for a rich country like Japan
to dump its dangerous wastes on countries which neither have the
means nor resources to manage their own waste problems effectively.
Moreover, it is a fact that no safe solution has yet been found for
the disposal of radioactive waste," added Baconguis.
Japan and the Philippines are both signatories to the Basel
Convention, a legally-binding global commitment to stop the export
of hazardous waste from industrialized countries to developing
countries. Both countries, however, have yet to ratify the Basel
Ban, an amendment to the Basel Convention which forbids even trade
of hazardous waste disguised as recycling.
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organization which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force the solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.