    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
    [May 17, 1991]
    [Page 523]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 523]]

    Message to the Senate Transmitting the Basel Convention on the Control
    of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
    May 17, 1991

    To the Senate of the United States:
        I transmit herewith, for the advice and consent of the Senate to
    ratification, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
    Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, with Annexes, done at
    Basel on March 22, 1989. The report of the Department of State is
    enclosed for the information of the Senate.
        The Convention, which was negotiated under the auspices of the
    United Nations Environment Program with the active participation of the
    United States, makes environmentally sound management the prerequisite
    to any transboundary movement of wastes. To that end, it bars
    transboundary movements unless every country involved has consented.
    Even when consent is obtained, shipments must be prohibited when either
    the country from which the wastes are exported or the country in which
    the wastes will be disposed have reason to believe that the shipment
    will not be handled in an environmentally sound manner. The Convention
    also provides for the environmentally sound management of wastes that
    are illegally transported.
        Upon receiving the unanimous recommendation of interested agencies,
    I personally authorized signature of the Convention by the United States
    last March. The notice-and-consent regime it establishes advances
    environmental goals that the United States has long held. We were one of
    the first nations to enact legislation prohibiting exports of hazardous
    wastes without the consent of the importing country. In March 1989, as
    negotiations of this Convention were concluding, I announced that the
    Administration planned to seek statutory authority to ban exports of
    hazardous wastes except pursuant to a bilateral agreement providing for
    the environmentally sound management of the wastes. We now have such
    agreements with Canada and Mexico. Proposed legislation supported by the
    Administration has recently been transmitted to the Congress.
        I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration
    to the Convention and its advice and consent to ratification.

                                                                 George Bush

    The White House,
    May 17, 1991.

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