§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has received from the Sao Paulo State Environment Protection Agency in Brazil with regard to the return to the United Kingdom by the Produquimica company of Brazil of a consignment of copper, arsenic and cadmium wastes in December 1993.
§ Mr. AtkinsI presume that the question refers to material exported by London Metals Ltd. to the Produquimica Company in Brazil, which was recently returned to the United Kingdom.
My Department has received no information or other communication directly from the Sao Paulo State Environment Protection Agency—CETESB. However, information received indirectly may be summarised as follows.
567WThe Produquimica Company has claimed that it returned the material to the United Kingdom on the grounds that the terms of the original contract had not been fulfilled. CETESB joined in recommending re-export on these grounds: at this stage its own analysis of the cargo was not complete. The shipment left Brazil on 21 December 1993.
Subsequently, CETESB carried out an analysis of a sample from the cargo, which showed its composition to be largely zinc—44.9 per cent.—with some copper—8.25 per cent.—a substantial amount of moisture—14.3 per cent. —and trace amounts of metals such as cadmium and arsenic—in total about 1 per cent. CETESB concluded that the material should be classified as "ash and residues, principally containing zinc". Under Brazilian regulation No. 138—of 22 December 1992—such residues can be imported into Brazil only after prior authorisation from IBAMA—Federal Environment Agency—and DECEX—Department of Foreign Trade. Produquimica is not registered with IBAMA. CETESB therefore took the view that the import was in breach of this regulation, and formally demanded the return of the cargo to its place of origin. This demand was made only after the shipment had already left Brazil.