Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Controversial Tires

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SAO PAULO, Aug 12 2006 (IPS) - On Sept. 4 will be the second hearing of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for debate on the restrictions of imports of recycled tires in Brazil. If Brazil wins, other countries could maintain similar legal measures and public policies for environmental protection.

“If the ruling is not in our favor, it would be a major reversal for the country's legislation, given that it would open a precedent for the import of waste like used computers,” Maria Gracia de Lourdes Grossi, head of the Environment Ministry's environmental risk reduction project, explained to Tierramérica.

The defeat would not only be for Brazil, she said, because “it would also hurt developing countries that hope to restrict the entry of waste into their territories.”