China has reaffirmed its commitment to ban imports of a variety of solid waste to the country, including textile waste, as World Trade Organization (WTO) members discussed trade concerns at their annual committee meeting.
Starting their regular three-year review of the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement, the members proposed ideas on how to improve implementation of the agreement. WTO members discussed 61 specific trade concerns, of which solid waste was one of those.
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As of the end of 2017, China says it will ban imports of a variety of solid waste to the country. This includes plastics, paper and textiles waste. It said the new measure is part of a policy framework and an effort to better regulate solid waste.
The measure is aimed at addressing risks of pollution from solid waste, and seeks to protect the environment and human health, China added. A six month transition period has been provided, and China said it had further clarified the scope of the measure based on comments from WTO members.
The European Union (EU), Japan, the US, Australia and Canada questioned the broad scope of the measure, and whether it applied to domestic operators in the same way as foreign operators. They asked China for a longer transition period of up to five years.
In July, China notified the WTO it will stop accepting shipments of rubbish such as waste plastic, paper, and textiles as part of a campaign against “foreign garbage.” The import ban is expected to enter into force by the end of 2017 and will cover a number of types of waste wool, cotton and yarn.
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By GlobalDataBut while the Chinese government says the proposed ban will stop scrap textile waste from polluting the environment, the US-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) says it will damage the recycling potential of the textile industry and ultimately lead to more waste.
In 2016, China accounted for 27% of global scrap imports. And with more than $5.2bn in scrap commodities exported from the US to China last year alone, the trade in specification-grade commodities between the two countries is of “critical importance” to the health and success of the US-based recycling industry and China’s manufacturing sector, the ISRI says. It is requesting a revision of the policy as well as clarification of the ban’s scope.
WTO members question China waste import ban
The WTO’s TBT review process is scheduled to be completed in November 2018.
