Call for Removal of Tariff Reduction for Wastes

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Status of JPEPA in Japan
Approved by the House of Councilors (Upper House) on December 6, 2006
Approved by the House of Representatives (Lower House) on November 14, 2006

Japanese Citizen Groups Joint Press Release
Call for Removal of Tariff Reduction for Wastes from the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA)

November 29, 2006

We are citizen groups who tackle the environmental, human health, and human rights issues.

The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), singed by the Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on September 9, 2006, was approved by the Lower House and is headed for debates at the Upper House.

This bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) includes within it a list of wastes, including hazardous wastes, for which tariffs are to be eliminated. Tariff elimination is designed to, and will have the effect of, facilitating trade. Many of the wastes targeted for tariff elimination are wastes that are internationally designated wastes whose trade is meant to be strictly controlled under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. Citizens and NGOs in Philippines have been protesting against the ratification of JPEPA, which triggered a growing concern within the international community over the implication of JPEPA on the environment and human health in the Philippines.

On November 27th, at the Senate of the Philippines, the chairperson of the Senate Trade and Commerce Committee called for a further discussion at a meeting with participation by all members on the pluses and minuses of JPEPA and assessment of its impact on various sectors, considering the rising concern over the possibility of JPEPA to promote imports of hazardous waste from Japan.

In the JPEPA, the Annex 1 referred to in Chapter 2: Schedules in relation to Article 18, which includes the "Schedule of the Philippines," which indicates tariff rate quotas and other preferential tariff treatments applied to goods exported from Japan to Philippines. In the Schedule, all sorts of waste are listed as Tariff Zero Products. Examples of the waste are ash and residues containing arsenic, mercury, thallium or their mixtures; ash and residues from the incineration of municipal waste; waste pharmaceuticals; municipal waste; sewage sludge; waste organic solvents; etc. On the other hand, those wastes are not listed in the Schedule of Japan - the list of tariff rate quotas and other preferential tariff treatments applied to goods exported from the Philippines to Japan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan spares the pages of their website for JPEPA both in English and in Japanese. In English pages, they list both the Schedule of Japan and the Schedule of the Philippines. However, in Japanese pages, they list only the Schedule of Japan, which makes impossible for the majority of Japanese legislators and the public to be informed of the inclusion of hazardous waste as goods targeted for tariff reduction in exports from Japan to the Philippines. This tells us that it is likely that the negotiators and supporters of JPEPA on the side of Japan deliberately prevent the public from knowing about the JPEPA promotion of waste export from Japan to the Philippines. There was no mention of the issue of tariff elimination for waste by JPEPA at the deliberations of the Lower House. It is a critical problem if the legislators at the deliberations decided to approve the JPEPA without knowing about the wastes listed in the Annex because the Japanese version of the JPEPA didn't have the Schedule of the Philippines.

We therefore released the Citizen Groups Joint Appeal: Call for Removal of Tariff Reduction for Wastes from the JPEPA.

We strongly believe that the Upper House deliberation should address the problems of including wastes in the list of tariff reduction products within JPEPA, and should decide to eliminate wastes from the list, in order for Japan to avoid threatening the environment and human health of developing countries by imposing a burden of dealing with waste generated in Japan and thereby alleviating the domestic waste problems. At least, it is advisable that Japan make pledge not to export waste to the Philippines at this point.

CITIZENS AGAINST CHEMICALS POLLUTION
CAMPAIGN FOR FUTURE OF FILIPINO CHILDREN (CFFC)
CITIZENS' GROUP TO REVIEW THE "50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PHILIPPINES AND JAPAN FRIENDSHIP"
JUBILEE KANSAI NETWORK
BAN ASBESTOS NETWORK JAPAN
SHIMIN-SEICHOU (AN NPO FOR CITIZENS' POLICY MAKING)
BASEL ACTION NETWORK

Japanese Citizen Groups Joint Appeal
Call for Removal of Tariff Reduction for Wastes from the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA)

November 29, 2006

Not only people and the Senators in the Philippines but also the international community have expressed concern over the JPEPA's listing of hazardous wastes as products for tariff elimination in export from Japan to the Philippines despite the principles and decisions of the Basel Convention to regulate transboundary movements of hazardous wastes. It is highly likely that JPEPA opens a door for export of hazardous waste from Japan to the Philippines by eliminating trade barriers in waste. It is an unavoidable concern as the Japan was accused of attempting an illegal export of medical waste to the Philippines in 1999.

The Japanese government has ratified the Basel Convention, adopted in Basel, Switzerland in1989 in response to numerous international scandals regarding hazardous waste trafficking that began to occur in the late 1980s. It has, however, yet to ratify the Basel Ban decision, which effectively banned as of 1 January 1998 all forms of hazardous waste exports from the most industrialized countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to all non-OECD countries. Along with the US, Canada, and Australia, Japan has made great efforts to attack the Ban Amendment.

Also, at the G8 meeting held in Tokyo in April 2005, Japan proposed a global waste management policy, called the 3R Initiative, one of whose objectives is "to reduce barriers to the international flow of goods and materials for recycling and remanufacturing, recycled and remanufactured products." It aims to impose a burden of hazardous waste and obsolete end-of-life products onto developing countries by promoting export of waste and products for the sake of establishing "a sound material-cycle society" at the regional and global levels.

Moreover, it is obvious that Japan is seeking to use bilateral free-trade agreements like in the case of the JPEPA to build a waste management and disposal system within the Asia region for mounting piles of obsolete products and waste generated in Japan.

Both the Basel Convention and the Japan's Waste Management Law clearly state the principle and obligation of the achievement of national self-sufficiency in hazardous waste management. Japan should develop its own capacity to manage its own hazardous wastes within its own borders. Nevertheless, its attempt to avoid the responsibility for wastes generated within Japan by shifting the responsibility to developing countries is not impermissible from the environmental justice standpoint.

We ask the Japanese government to do the following:

1) Immediately removing all waste trade liberalization provisions from the JPEPA
2) Commit not to include waste in any bilateral free-trade agreements between Japan and developing countries in the future
3) Strictly comply with the principle of national self-sufficiency in management of waste and recyclable products, and thus abandon such waste management policies that rely on developing countries
4) Prioritize the reduction of waste generation and promote 3R-related policies aimed at enhancing the domestic waste management capacity and material cycle within the border
5) Completely remove from the 3R initiative all references to eliminating or reducing trade barriers for wastes and cease efforts to liberalize waste trade globally
6) Ratifying the Basel Convention's Ban Amendment and putting a total ban on export of hazardous waste for any reasons including for recycling

CITIZENS AGAINST CHEMICALS POLLUTION
CAMPAIGN FOR FUTURE OF FILIPINO CHILDREN (CFFC)
CITIZENS' GROUP TO REVIEW THE "50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PHILIPPINES AND JAPAN FRIENDSHIP"
JUBILEE KANSAI NETWORK
BAN ASBESTOS NETWORK JAPAN
SHIMIN-SEICHOU (AN NPO FOR CITIZENS' POLICY MAKING)
BASEL ACTION NETWORK

For more information:
Takeshi YASUMA (Citizens Against Chemicals Pollution) can be reached via e-mail (ac7t-ysm@asahi-net.or.jp)