[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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