APL (Ajiken Power Lunch)

APL (Ajiken Power Lunch) is a lunchtime workshop open to public, including IDE staffs, visiting research fellows, IDEAS students, outside researchers and graduate students. This workshop provides a platform for presentation of any work in progress where we can discuss in either English or Japanese.

Those who would attend a seminar are asked to announce yourself to receptionists on your arrival at the IDE and to obtain APL Organizers' signature on your admission card after the seminar.

August 4, 2017. (Friday) 12：30-14：00

Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization C23 Meeting Room 　

Trade for the Environment: Transboundary Hazardous Waste Movements after th Basel Convention

The Basel Convention treats hazardous wastes as pollutants and controls their adverse effects by minimizing their transboundary movements. This study questions the Basel Convention’s view of hazardous wastes as externalities and its use of trade restrictions as a means of promoting their proper treatment. Viewing hazardous wastes as industrial goods rather than pollutants, this paper explains why various countries participate in hazardous waste trade despite the Basel Convention. I argue that global economic integration has commodified hazardous wastes into tradable goods. I find that countries with higher levels of development are more likely to trade hazardous wastes and with higher levels of specialization, and this trade does not necessarily lead to a deterioration in environmental and public health. The growing hazardous waste market offers important insights that challenge the Basel Convention's trade-restriction approach and reveal its potential incompatibility with other international regimes on trade and environment.

Shiming Yang
(University of Southern California)

KOJIMA Michikazu

English