China Environmental Law

Occasionally one of my Google alerts turns up a strange little nugget.  Today’s sieving revealed a truly bizarre bit of news.  A report on Vermont Public Radio reveals that the Chinese government weighed in with a Vermont legislator regarding a pending computer recycling law. 

Here’s the gist of it:

Senator Ginny Lyons believes electronics products represent a threat to the environment. Computer and television screens contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury and cadmium. So Lyons introduced a bill this year that would require manufacturers to pay a fee to the state. The money would cover the cost of recycling those products when they wear out.

Lyons says she was surprised when she got a message from the Chinese government opposing the bill.

Apparently China “was notified of the bill by U.S. trade officials.”  This may be a WTO requirement (anybody out there know?), but it got Legislator Lyons all riled up. 

(Lyons) “ I think that it is inappropriate for a foreign government to come in and try to influence our democratic legislative process.’

Lyons has introduced a resolution with the National Conference of State Legislators. It condemns both China and the United States for interfering with individual state legislatures. The resolution says a Maryland state lawmaker had a similar experience.

(Lyons) “When we see that the discussion of trade begins to influence a conversation about public health and environmental protection, then we have concerns. The bill could have been about health care. It could have been about workers’ benefits. It could have been about any number of issues.”

It doesn’t appear that China violated any laws so I couldn’t care less if it wanted to express its opinion on this issue. 

My question is why did China oppose the Vermont bill?  I assume Chinese manufacturers make a lot of the products covered by the law, but it doesn’t single out Chinese manufacturers.  I assume that it’s the retailers who will have to pay the recycling fee which they will then try to recoup from their suppliers (if they can’t simply pass it on in the purchase price) which could squeeze the margin on some of those Chinese entities.  If this is the motivation, I applaud the Chinese government for its solicitous attitude toward its businesses. 

A more sinister reading is that China is concerned that domestic Vermont (and copycat states) recycling could dry up the supply of electronic wastes recycled in China.  Is that possible?

A third possibility is that Legislator Lyon was contacted by an imposter purporting to represent the Chinese government in an attempt to stir things up.  As I said, this is a strange news item. 

If a case of Tiger Wine shows up at your office Legislator Lyon, that’s when you should start to get nervous.