Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
markets, such as North America and East Asia. Exports to all regions amount to one-
third of ACP's GDP, while total exports to the EU are 10 percent, and exports to the EU
subject to REACH are just 6.5 billion, or 1.4 percent of the group's GDP.
3
Only 24 of the 79 ACP countries have any signi
fi
cant exports subject to REACH, by
any one of three standards:
1.
REACH exports
4
are at least 1 percent of GDP.
2.
The annual value of all REACH exports is at least
10 million.
€
3.
For at least one category of REACH exports, the annual volume of shipments
exceeds 1000 tonnes.
Other ACP countries are agricultural exporters, service-based (often tourist-oriented)
economies, or producers of fuels and other commodities that are exempt from REACH.
Of ACP's
5.9 billion, more than 90 percent of
the total, consists of mining products. Almost all of the mining consists of a few familiar
materials: gold, iron and steel, aluminum, platinum, cobalt, copper, manganese and nickel
together account for the overwhelming majority of REACH exports from ACP. There are
no small-scale exporters of these products to Europe; in most cases, multinationals such
as Anglo American (based in the UK), BHP Billiton (Australia), Alcan (Canada) and
Alcoa (USA) are involved, either alone or with local partners. Particularly in South
Africa, some large national
6.5 billion of REACH exports, some
€
€
rms are also involved in mining.
There is one important example of small enterprises in ACP mining. In several coun-
tries, small-scale or artisanal gold mining exists alongside major commercial mines.
Large numbers of people are engaged in searching for gold with only rudimentary
tools, under 'gold rush' conditions where most participants earn very little. This style
of mining apparently does not occur on a large scale in South Africa (the source of
almost 80% of ACP's gold exports to Europe), or in mining for anything other than
gold.
Serious issues of poverty, economic development and environmental health are raised
by artisanal gold mining. Yet the existence of these impoverished freelance miners does
not imply that gold (or any other mineral) is exported to Europe by ACP micro-
enterprises. Small-scale gold miners sell their gold either on the black market, or to
national government agencies that export gold to Europe. In Tanzania, the country best
known for artisanal gold mining, three-fourths of the nation's gold output comes from
subsidiaries of Anglo American and other multinationals, and one-fourth from hundreds
of thousands of artisanal miners. The national government is obligated to buy the gold
produced by the small-scale miners, and is building a government-owned gold re
fi
nery to
handle their output. Thus it is the government of Tanzania, not the individual miners,
that exports the country's artisanal gold.
ACP exports to the EU of chemicals subject to REACH amount to just
fi
0.6 billion a
year, more than half of which comes from South Africa. On balance, South Africa is a
net importer of chemicals from Europe, but its industry does export a wide range of prod-
ucts to the EU. Three companies dominate the South African chemical industry; one is a
subsidiary of Dow Chemical, and the other two are national
€
fi
rms that are as large as
many multinationals (one has annual sales of
9 billion and is listed on the New York
Stock Exchange). Of the chemical exports from other ACP countries, the majority
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