| A CRIME AGAINST NATURE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Halon Trade - CFC Trade: Cold Gold
The US task force established to counter the illegal trade in CFCs continues to expose smugglers. In February the Department of Justice announced charges in five new smuggling cases, including the Medina Forwarding Corporation for illegally importing CFC12 from Russia. The batch of indictments also included the first case arising from halon 1301 smuggling, with Gretchen Reynolds of Reynolds Services charged with falsifying papers relating to the importation of five tonnes of halon. Smugglers are particularly active in the southern state of Texas, where enforcement officers report seizing material from Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, India and China. Although petitions for Chinese halon are now being refused, it appears that large quantities of CFCs from China are entering the US on the grounds that the material is used. During 1997 over 200 tonnes of Chinese CFC12 entered the US market--this amount has been equalled in the first six months alone of 1998. Many Chinese brokers contacted by EIA's front company have stated that the CFCs on offer are virgin as the country has little recycling capacity for CFC12. As the production sector plan for China has yet to be agreed by the executive committee of the Montreal Protocol, multilateral funding for CFC recycling has been limited to a few demonstration projects. One official at the United Nations Development Programme's Montreal Protocol unit has described China's CFC recycling capacity as "minimal at best". Yet Chinese CFCs continue to be allowed into the US market in increasing quantities. The US EPA is in the process of revising its petitions procedure, which for the first time will place the onus on importers to check the veracity of information supplied. Such a move should open up the import of CFCs to greater scrutiny. |
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