Peace and Environment News* February 2001
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Peace and Environment News * February 2001 |
by Espen Larsen
Canadian asbestos is about as welcome as a malignant tumour in the European Union, but Ottawa is continuing to support a Quebec industry that exports 95 percent of its carcinogenic product. Ottawa's support, some say, has less to do with the relatively small European market and more to do with the role of Quebec in Canadian politics.
In September, the World Trade Organization ruled in favour of a French ban on chrysotile asbestos. The ruling means all the EU member states can refuse to import this type of asbestos, of which Canada is the world's second largest producer. The federal government has now decided to appeal the WTO ruling, anxious to protect a $200-million-a-year Quebec industry.
The staunch federal support of Quebec's asbestos industry, which directly and indirectly employs about 4,000 workers, is not just a matter of market access. The European market accounted for only five percent of Canadian asbestos exports in 1999, at a value of $14 million. In fact, the appeal is all about Quebec and the contentious issue of separatism, some say.
"The federal government must be seen to defend Quebec interests because of the separatist movement," says a European diplomatic source who asked not to be named.
"Ottawa cannot say to Quebec, 'asbestos is dangerous and of course you can't export it,'" the source says. This is well understood and generally accepted in diplomatic circles, the source argues.
"We fully understand that Canada has to appeal this case on behalf of Quebec. And I've talked to people at (the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) who say, 'Look, we're not going to win this, we're just doing it to look good vis-a-vis Quebec.'"
A Foreign Affairs official won't respond directly to these statements, but says the federal government stands up for all the provinces when it feels it's important.
"We're defending all sorts of industries across Canada," says André Lemay, a Foreign Affairs spokesperson.
"We'll stand up for the oil industry in Alberta, the softwood lumber industry in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and B.C., and we're defending the fish industry in the Atlantic provinces," says Lemay.
Ruling favours health
The WTO ruling is the first of its kind, allowing a country to set up trade barriers in order to protect human health. The decision is welcomed in Europe, where nine of the 15 EU member states already had a unilateral ban on chrysotile asbestos.
"It's shown that asbestos leads to serious health problems. It's not safe, and we don't want it," says Roy Christensen, a spokesperson for the European Commission's delegation in Canada.
Nine European countries—Germany, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Italy—unilaterally banned chrysotile asbestos between 1983 and 1993. In 1996, France moved to stop importing and using the material, which has long been identified as a source of lung cancer. Canada challenged the French ban under WTO rules in 1998, fearing the loss of the European market and the effects of a ban by industrialized countries on the much larger asbestos markets in Asia and South America.
The WTO panel made its ruling official on September 18. It concluded that the French ban was, in fact, discriminatory and contrary to its obligations under international trade principles. However, the panel decided that the ban was legitimate, because WTO rules allow countries to restrict trade when it's "necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health."
The Canadian response is that the WTO panel got it all wrong.
"We never questioned countries' right to defend any ban they might have for health reasons," says Lemay. What's wrong, he says, is that the WTO didn't pay enough attention to Canada's argument that asbestos can be used safely.
"Banning asbestos is too restrictive a measure, because chrysotile asbestos can be used safely provided that exposure levels are monitored effectively," says Lemay.
"Scientific data supports this kind of controlled use of asbestos," he says.
Links to cancer
Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that occurs naturally in nearly two-thirds of the earth's crust. We inhale small amounts of asbestos in every breath, according to Natural Resources Canada. Asbestos from Quebec is used in products such as building materials, brake linings and water and sewage pipes. In these products, the fibres are encased in a matrix such as cement to keep them from polluting the environment.
However, large concentrations of the fibre have been proven to cause scarred lungs and cancer, which has killed thousands of people around the world since 1879 when the world's first commercial asbestos mine was opened at Thetford, Quebec.
The first time lung scarring was linked to asbestos use was in England in 1924, and seven years later, Britain passed the first health law to protect workers. Less than two years ago, after considerable public pressure, Britain adopted a total ban on imports of Canadian asbestos. The British reaction to the Canadian appeal has been muted.
"The issue has been one of concern, but it's not a big problem. It's Canada's right to appeal, and they have done it," a British diplomat says, denying that Ottawa's push to export asbestos has been a source of friction between the two countries.
Support for Quebec
The lack of frustration among Europeans may very well be because of the reasons behind Ottawa's support of Quebec—to prevent anger in Quebec over lost jobs, which could give separatists another reason to argue for independence. That's what government sources say when they can speak off the record, and that's what Greenpeace's Steven Guilbeault told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer earlier this year.
"Of course, the federal government wants to do everything it can to make it look like it's sensitive to the concerns of Quebec," he said, and pointed out that Canadian industries are now in the process of starting to extract magnesium from asbestos waste.
The vein of asbestos that runs through Quebec is buried in deposits of rock rich in iron and magnesium, and analysts predict the magnesium market could explode in the next two decades.
Foreign Affairs won't comment on that, but Lemay says Canada is an exporting nation and "if we start backing down on any form of trade obstacle, there's nothing to tell us that it's not going start spreading to other areas."
The appeal decision is expected in early March, 2001, but the European Commission's spokesperson in Ottawa says he doubts the WTO will overturn the ruling.
"This case has gone on for many years and we're talking about a final report," says Christensen.
"I don't think they'll change it," he says.
Espen Larsen is a fourth year journalism student at Carleton University.
Converted May 24, 2001 - Lg
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