Transparency and Toxic Waste: State Decisions to Report and Import Toxic Waste

This study examines a country’s reporting behavior and its decision to import toxic waste within the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. I examine the contexts in which states report and make decisions to import toxic waste within both industrialized and developing countries. It appears that wealth influences a country’s capacity to establish reporting systems, with reduced transparency of the toxic waste trade in developing countries. Although most countries that do import toxic waste are industrialized, the developing countries that do import toxic waste are the most corrupt developing countries