A report by Greenpeace says that Japan is using bilateral agreements to get around the Basel Convention -- an agreement which requires each country to take responsibility for managing its own waste within its own national borders. Apparently the Japanese tie development aid project assistance -- i.e. subways for Bangkok -- to side agreements that require recipient to accept Japan's waste.
What I think is wrong with this kind of bilateral agreement:
Due the high level of corruption in the poor nation receiving the toxic waste, a few government officials and businessmen in the recipient nation profit from the waste transfer. Any environmental commitments that Japan insists be put into these bilateral accords will tend to be ignored, because it is profitable to ignore them. And who is going to enforce them? Courts, police, etc. are bought off. Poor people, animals, and the environment pay the entire cost.
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