To date, considerable progress has been made by the Parties to ratify the landmark Basel Ban Amendment. But more ratifications are now needed to achieve the necessary 62 for entry into force. To date there are 20 official ratifications deposited at the United Nations. However there are at least 30 parties that have implemented the agreement. Below, we show a progress report of the various groupings of countries and the differing circumstances surrounding each.
Countries possessing import bans consistent with the Basel Ban are too numerous to list here.
As we shall see, the Basel Ban Amendment is reflective of numerous regional agreements which in many cases are already in force. However the existence of national and regional bans should not be seen as a reason for countries to ignore or forestall individual ratifications of this vital global agreement. Europe Takes the Lead As the Basel Ban is really an Annex VII country export ban, it is of paramount importance that Annex VII countries ratify the agreement. To date the European Union has been the driving force within the Annex VII group. Of course, as only actual deposited ratifications can be counted for final entry into force, each European country that has failed to do so, must ratify individually at the earliest opportunity.