This new briefing, initiated by several NGOs – including Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the Veblen Institute – and supported by over 100 NGOs, highlights the double standards under which EU companies export to third countries products that are banned in Europe because they are dangerous to health and the environment.
Stéphanie KPENOU
Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su
Toxic pesticides and toys, polluting single-use plastics, and dangerous industrial chemicals: many products cannot be placed on the EU market because they are harmful to health and the environment. Yet they continue to be produced in Europe for exportation beyond EU borders. Several pieces of European legislation do not apply to goods produced in the EU for use or consumption in non-EU countries.
These regulations generally only apply to the “placing on the European market” meaning that they do not apply to products manufactured in EU Member States for export to non-EU countries. It is the case, for example, of the 2006 REACH regulation on chemicals, the 2009 Pesticides Regulation, the 2009 Children’s Toys Directive, the 2019 Single-use Plastics Directive, the 2023 Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the 2023 proposal for a Toy Safety Regulation and the 2024 AI Act.
European legislation thus allows EU companies to profit off the production and export to non-EU countries of products which are deemed too dangerous or unfit for the EU market and people.
Regarding pesticides, according to an investigation by Public Eye, in 2018 over 80,000 tonnes of pesticides containing substances banned within the EU were exported especially in developing countries where regulations on their use are much less stringent. In 2023, a Greenpeace Germany investigation revealed that toxic pesticides exported from the EU to non-EU countries were sneaking back into Europe on agricultural products such as limes, as a cocktail of toxins that could be dangerous for the health of European consumers.
Regarding chemicals, according to the European Chemicals Agency, in 2020 over 660,000 tonnes of hazardous chemicals banned or severely restricted in the EU were exported from the EU to other countries.
The briefing also illustrates examples of existing EU legislation where the loopholes do not appear, and which provide precedent for action to close them. The EU regulation prohibiting goods produced with forced labour and the EU regulation on mercury both cover exports from the EU to non-EU countries.
The signatories of the briefing urge the new Commission to take up this issue without delay. Indeed, the EU has the means to adopt a horizontal legislation to put an end to these exports of toxic products whose sale and use are not authorised on the EU market.
Original article: Veblen Institute
