TED Case Studies

Taiga Logging

          CASE NUMBER:          67 
          CASE MNEMONIC:      TAIGA
          CASE NAME:          Taiga Forest and Weyerhaeuser


A.    Identification

1.    The Issue

      Taiwan's trade in disposing of hazardous materials,
particularly scrap metal and car batteries, has a significant
impact on its local environment and population, and how this
problem is now being shifted to China.  This case has relevance to
trade and environment because today, many advanced, industrialized
countries like the US and Europe are exporting their hazardous
materials to developing countries willing to dispose of these
materials for foreign exchange and capital.  For instance, the US
creates around 500 million tons of toxic waste a year, and must
find a place to dispose all of this waste.(1)  Many of these
developing countries have little or no environmental protection
controls, and also may not have the latest technologies to dispose
of hazardous waste properly.

2.    Description

      For the past few decades, Taiwan has gone to great lengths to
promote rapid economic growth on this small island of 20 million
people.  This effort has succeeded as Taiwan has become a major
trading nation with a per capita GNP of around $8000, trades over
$70 billion in goods, maintains over $11 billion trade surplus, and
has around $80 billion in foreign reserves.(2)  However, for the
price of becoming a modern, highly industrialized nation, Taiwan
has sacrificed its environment to attain that goal.  Until 1987,
Taiwan had no government agency to promote and protect its
environment, therefore allowing and even promoting local industries
to pollute at will to achieve rapid economic growth.  This
widespread pollution has begun to takes its toll on the local
population and wildlife.

      One such industry that has had a negative impact on Taiwan's
local community and environment has been its foreign waste disposal
industry.  For the past 30 years, Taiwan was willing to accept
waste materials, even hazardous waste, from advanced developed
countries like the US, and dispose and recycle that waste. 
Supposedly, such trade has been quite profitable as advanced
developed countries have become more environmentally conscience
over the decades and have become less willing to dispose of their
own hazardous waste in their own country.  Therefore, developing
countries like Taiwan have been willing to accept that waste for
disposal.  

      Among the waste products that Taiwan was willing to accept
were car batteries.  The car batteries would be disposed for its
lead which would be recycled and used to make new car batteries. 
However, car batteries are quite hazardous to dispose of due to the
lead acid that it contains which is considered poisonous to humans. 
If come into contact with, lead acid would cause symptoms like
"high blood pressure, gout, hand tremors, headaches, and a leakage
of the kidneys."(3)  Lead poisoning could also cause impairment of
thinking and damage to the central nervous system.  Therefore, due
to increased cases of people suffering from symptoms due to
exposure to lead, Taiwan's government has become to phase out the
importation and disposal of hazardous materials in Taiwan.

      This in turn, has caused many of Taiwan's businesses that
deals in this kind of business to shift their dumping grounds from
Taiwan to China.  Because of the economic boom in China that has
taken place there since the 1980s, the Chinese too are less
concerned about preserving their environment than making some easy
foreign exchange through the importation and disposal of foreign
waste materials.  Thus, the burden of increased environmental
destruction and pollution has shifted to China as Taiwan has begun
to pay more attention to preserving and cleaning up its environment
these days.

      Since most of the waste that Taiwan has imported in the past
has come from the US, it should be the US's responsibility to find
ways to be more efficient in consuming products that we make or
purchase from abroad.  If developed countries consumed less or
wasted less, then we would not need to export our hazardous waste
to other developing countries.  The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has set up rules and guidelines to prevent the exporting of
hazardous waste materials to foreign countries, but loopholes and
exemptions remain, particularly with car batteries.  Therefore,
this problem effects both the importer and the exporter, and may
become an even bigger problem in the future as advanced countries
encourage their own citizens to purchase battery-powered electric
cars to decrease air pollution and the dependence on oil.  

3.    Related Cases

     JAPANSEA case
     ARCTIC case
     BASEL case
     BASMEX case
     FLORIDO case

     Keyword Clusters

     (1): Domain                   = ASIA
     (2): Bio-geography            = TROPICAL
     (3): Environmental Problem    = Pollution Land [POLL]

4.    Draft Author:  Casey Quan

B.    Legal Cluster

5.    Discourse and Status:  DISagree and ALLEGE

6.    Forum and Scope: TAIWAN and UNILATeral

7.    Decision Breadth: 1

8.    Legal Standing: LAW

C.    Geographic Cluster

9.    Geography

      a.  Continental Domain:  Asia
      b.  Geographic Site:  East Asia
      c.  Geographic Impact:  Taiwan

10.   Sub-National Factors:  NO

11.   Type of Habitat: TROPical

D.    Trade Cluster

12.   Type of Measure:  Import ban [IMBAN]

13.   Direct vs. Indirect Impacts: DIRect

      The US is directly impacting on Taiwan's environment and
public health safety by continuing to keep loopholes in the
hazardous waste laws that allow exportation of hazardous materials
like car batteries if their casings are still intact.  Taiwan is
also having an impact on China's environment and public health
safety by allowing its business people to continue in the hazardous
waste trade despite Taiwan's efforts to ban it in Taiwan by
transferring their facilities to mainland China.)

14.   Relation of Measure to Impact 
      
      Directly Related: Yes (Because these measures help control the
transfer of hazardous materials that would have serious
environmental and health concerns for Taiwan.)

15.   Trade Product Identification:  BATTery
      
16.   Economic Data
      The value of the industry in Tasiwan is about $100 million
(1990).(4)

17.   Degree of Competitive Impact: BAN

18.   Industry Sector: MANUFacture

      Standard Industry Code: SOTH (Transferring waste and disposing
or recycling it.)

19.   Exporter and Importer: USA and TAIWan

      The USA was the world's largest exporter of batteries and
accounts for 70% of Taiwan's imports (1990).(5)

E.    Environmental Clusters
20.   Environmental Problem Type: Pollution Land [POLL]

      The by-products of car batteries like lead acid are toxic to
the human body and can cause such ailments as kidney disease,
problems with the nervous system, and psychological disorders.  The
spilling of lead acid into the ground and water has known to kill
the wildlife and fish that come in contact with this deadly toxin. 
The burning of wires and the plastic covering can pollute the air
with dioxins.

21.   Species Information

     Name:          Many
     Type:          Many
     Diversity:     NA

22.   Impact and Effect: HIGH and REGULatory
      
23.   Urgency and Lifetime: LOW and 100s of years

24.   Substitutes:  Biodegradable [BIODG]

F.    Other Factors

25.   Culture:  NO

26.   Human Rights:  YES

27.   Trans-Boundary Issues:  NO

28.   Relevant Literature

Allen, Craig. "Taiwan Plans Massive Efforts to Clean Up Its
Environment, Which Has Suffered in the Rush Toward
Industrialization."  Business America, January 15, 1990, 29-30.

Goodno, James B.  "Polluting Paradise."  Technology Review
(August/September 1991): 16-17.

Moyers, Bill D.  Global Dumping Ground (Washington, DC: Seven Locks
Press, 1990).

Noyes, Dan.  "Toxics 'R Us."  Mother Jones (Nov./Dec. 1990): 56-58,
      74-75.

                                 Rerferences

1.    Bill Moyers, Global Dumping Ground, (Washington, DC: Seven
Locks Press, 1990), 6.

2.    "Technology Review" (August/September 1991), 16;  Business
America (January 15, 1990), 29.

3.    Mother Jones (Nov./Dec. 1990), 58.

4.    Ibid., 56.

5.    Ibid., 56