Most stock market circles may be unfamiliar with carbon credits, but the transfer of toxic and hazardous chemical manufacture from the first to the third world has been a win-win situation for knowledgeable investors for many years now. India and China have walked away with most of the spoils, and countries in Europe, both within and independent of the Union, have been major gainers in ecological terms.
Stock market holdings in global companies have reaped dual rewards from shifts in chemical production to poorly regulated countries. Cost savings for holding companies in the West and in Japan have been minor considerations, for the very continuation of business with some pesticides would have been in question had obliging emerging economies not stepped in with rapid regulatory clearances for the most questionable substances.
It is not as though stock market interests in India and China have been ignored. International companies such as Novartis produce obsolete generics in fully owned subsidiaries, in preference to other entities which they share with local stake holders. Syngenta, with a galaxy of chemical poisons in its armory, has even moved to de-list from the local stock market in India, thus absolving local share holders of any product liabilities arising out of their activities in the country.
The good news for the stock market is that the Americas have now got in to the act, with the United States, Canada, and Mexico, agreeing to review their shared safeguards for 9,000 dangerous chemicals. Massive production operations are sure to move South and East in search of greener pastures, and everyone stands to benefit from such transfers. The 9,000 chemicals listed cover all major industrial categories, so it means new investments, jobs, and revenues for poor countries, while the US and Canada keep their fingernails and backyards clean.
This decision, which is an outcome of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Leaders’ Summit, is a fine example of regional cooperation for global benefits. US regulators will take the lead in ensuring that the continent is not exposed to any unnecessary risks arising out of the production of these 9,000 products, though their uses will continue with new safeguards and arrangements.
