Sign up to receive SPP updates:
RSS feed.  |
ABOUT THE SPP | BACKGROUNDERS | MEDIA | VIDEO/AUDIO |
SPP resources SPP Summit - New Orleans SPP Summit - Montebello Teach-in |
March 18, 2008 More evidence today that the business-friendly SPP (like NAFTA, upon which it is built) poses an increasing risk to global as well as continental public interest policy. Whereas the European Union, which has adopted the precautionary principle in regulatory policy since 2000, is headed in a direction of strengthening environmental laws and requiring its trading partners to join them, the U.S. and Canada, through the SPP, appear set to be follow – and to promote – an entirely different model. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson talked about his department’s activities under the Security and Prosperity Partnership during the annual GlobalChem conference in Baltimore today. He also explained how the U.S., Mexican and Canadian governments are jointly lobbying foreign regulators to adopt the so-called Montebello Agreement on toxics as opposed to Europe’s more stringent Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) model. Johnson hinted at the difference between the two regulatory models early on in his speech: As you know, REACH – which came into effect last June – calls for the registration of all chemicals manufactured and imported into the European Union market at one ton or more per year. Registration will take place over a period of 11 years and will involve an estimated 30,000 existing chemical substances. While EPA supports the health and environmental protection goals of REACH, we believe that effective protection can be obtained through a more targeted and strategic approach to chemical assessment and management. Yes, more effective and more in tune with the business-friendly policies being adopted in Canada and the United States and then harmonized through the SPP. The SPP agreement on toxics, which came out of the 2007 SPP summit in Montebello (and which was not posted on any Canadian government website), was essentially a response to the REACH model. “At the SPP Leaders' Summit in Quebec, President Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon committed our three countries to work together to accelerate and strengthen the management of chemicals in North America,” said Johnson this morning during the conference’s first session on “Security and Prosperity Partnership and the Montebello Agreement.” “I believe this approach can provide a more focused, productive and workable scheme than the REACH framework.” The approach is risk-based, not precautionary, and involves prioritizing certain high-risk chemicals for extra scrutiny while monitoring most others for their effects on people and the environment. The chemicals industry likes it because it puts the onus on governments to prove that a chemical is unsafe as opposed to requiring companies to prove the chemical does not pose a risk. It is also a less stringent regulatory process to the one proposed by Europe, which is why Team North America (so to speak) is heading out on field trips to plug its corporate-friendly regulations around the world. “We have already begun to engage with other countries on the SPP commitments,” said Johnson. “For instance, along with our Canadian and Mexican counterparts, we have initiated consultations with European Commission officials dealing with REACH, and with OECD countries, including France, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Korea. “In addition, next month I am scheduled to travel to Australia to meet with a variety of federal and state officials, including those responsible for the oversight and regulation of pesticides and industrial chemicals. In these discussions, we will share information on the risk-based prioritization approach to chemicals assessment and management being delivered through [the Chemical Assessment and Management Program] and SPP.” According to the GlobalChem website, the annual conference, “has provided a unique educational opportunity for chemical industry professionals… [and] provides you with information and interaction with experts on the U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), emerging issues and trends in the product stewardship arena and equivalent international regulations.” GlobalChem is sponsored by various law firms who represent the chemicals industry. For more information on the REACH vs. SPP debate, click here. For more information on the “Montebello Agreement” on chemicals regulation, click here.
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
 |
NACC
Workers
Water
Energy
Security & civil liberties
Military
Transportation corridors
