Many developed countries permit the export of pesticides that are banned, re-
stricted, or unregistered within their own borders. This practice raises many ethical
issues as well as economic, social, political, and public health issues.^28
Corporations and their executives, accustomed to getting away with exporting
domestically banned pesticides and causing detrimental health and environmental
effects in developing countries, will change only if the costs of this activity outweigh
the benefits. Multinational corporations have the power to co-opt Third World gov-
ernments, and only a strong international code which is well enforced and costly to
disobey can prevent these types of unethical practices. Those injured by hazardous
pesticides will not be protected from an alliance of corporations seeking to continue
exporting domestically banned pesticides in the name of free trade unless citizens
organize and demand the WTO not allow corporations to export domestically
banned pesticides as prohibited by the PIC agreement of the FAO. The fight for cor-
porate responsibility will not be a top-down fight but a bottom-up struggle.Notes- Professor Hermann Waibel, briefing for the Developing Countries Project,
Pesticides Policy Project, adviser to the Global IPM Facility. - Michael Holly, ‘‘The EPA’s Pesticide Export Policy: Why the United States
Should Restrict the Export of Unregistered Pesticides to Developing Countries,’’New
York University Environmental Law Journal9 (2) (2001): 340–385. - Al Krebs, ‘‘U.S. Exports More and More Poison Pesticides,’’Agribusiness Exam-
iner142 (February 4, 2002).
4.Early Warning System on Global Trade in Hazardous Pesticides and Chemicals to
Become Law(Penang, Malaysia: PAN-Asia-Pacific press release, n.d.) - Ibid.
- Janet Raloff, ‘‘The Pesticide Shuffle,’’Science News149 (11) (March 16, 1996): 174.
- Ibid.
8.Prevention and Disposal of Obsolete Pesticides(Geneva: Foreign Aid Organiza-
tion Pesticide Disposal Series, n.d.)
9.Pesticides in Your Food(London: Pesticides Action Network-U.K., n.d.) - Douglas L. Murray and Peter Leigh Taylor, ‘‘Claim No Easy Victories: Evaluat-
ing the Pesticide Industry’s Global Safe Use Campaign,’’World Development28 (10):
1,735–1,749. - Mike Owen, ‘‘Unsafe Pesticide Use,’’Weed Science(Ames, IA: Iowa State Uni-
versity, July 1, 1997). - David J. Hanson, ‘‘Administration Seeks Tighter Curbs on Exports of Unregis-
tered Pesticides,’’Chemical and Engineering News72 (7): 16–17. - Richard Tansey, ‘‘Eradicating the Pesticide Problem in Latin America,’’Business
and Society Review2 (Winter 1995): 55–59. - Cameron Barr, ‘‘Combating the ‘Circle of Poison,’’’Christian Science Monitor,
May 7, 1991.
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