U.S. and Canada Reached Agreement to Continue Scrap Plastic Exports

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.S. and Canada has agreed to continue scrap plastic shipments between the two countries. This comes at a time when signatories of Basel Convention plans to regulate transboundary scrap shipments on environmental grounds. Meantime, several environmental organizations have raided opposition to the new agreement between the two countries. The text of the bilateral agreement was made public recently by the U.S. State Department.

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According to trade sources, the agreement preserves the status quo of trade in all non-hazardous plastics. It essentially means that mixed-plastic bales will be allowed to move freely between the two countries, whereas the exports of the same to other countries will be tightly controlled.

The bilateral agreement between the two countries assumes great significance, considering the fact that Canada is one among the major export markets for U.S. scrap plastic shipments. Incidentally, Canada had imported approximately 88 million pounds of scrap plastics from the U.S. during the third quarter of the current year.

A letter signed by coalition of environmental organizations, including Basel Action Network and RightOnCanada.ca expressed concerns. They urged the Canadian administration to adopt stricter control measures for scrap plastic trade with the U.S.