Countries are coming to the negotiating table in South Africa to reach agreement for the sake of people living today and generations to come. I believe they will meet this challenge. This week's meeting is the last of five scheduled negotiating sessions, which began in Montreal and continued in Nairobi, Geneva, and Bonn. UNEP set up the framework for a POPs treaty in 1997 with a deadline of 2000. Discussion will focus on limitations on manufacture and use of POPs, national action plans, funding, technical assistance, exemptions for DDT, which is used to combat malaria, and stockpiles of obsolete or unwanted pesticides.
Negotiators hope to establish criteria identifying other POPs for elimination.
If all sides agree this week, a diplomatic conference to sign the treaty will take place in Stockholm in May 2001, followed by ratification and implementation. The United States chief negotiator said INC 5 must complement existing waste treaties, such as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. But, we recognize that POPs are special, requiring extra care. But its use in the developing world in the fight against malaria may exempt it from a total ban. The Basel pact, adopted in 1989, is designed to reduce cross border movements of hazardous waste, improve controls on the movement of waste, prevent illegal traffic, and ensure that waste is disposed of as close as possible to its source.