The EU proposal would have banned exports of hazardous waste for final disposal but not exports for recycling. We need to adopt the ban once and for all. What they would negotiate was the implementation date. As chair, Dr. Nesiah from Sri Lanka, stated this position to the entire conference and also announced that the G-77 would be willing to call a vote on the issue if needed. In international treaties the preferred means of decision making is by consensus.
Voting is done only as a last resort.
Greenpeace also went into the meeting announcing to the international press that a vote would in all probability be necessary to override the intransigence of the handful of nations opposed to a ban. This was primarily important in order to encompass the former East Bloc which had been increasingly victimized by West European waste traders since the fall of the Berlin wall. A ban just to developing countries therefore would have meant very little as waste traders would simply redirect waste to the vast economically desperate lands of Central and Eastern Europe. This was another question which hung over the meeting until the final days. But unanimity was still in doubt.