CFC smuggling ring broken by EU
15 Jan 2000
The European Union has had its first success in stopping the lucrative illegal trade in chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). A ring which imported over 1000 tonnes of Chinese CFC has been broken, and a German suspect arrested.
The EU's anti-fraud unit, UCLAF, seized 150tonnes of contraband CFCs at Rotterdam, which led to the arrest. The German's company - which has not been named - had mislabelled 80 containers of CFCs as a non-CFC cooling agent, and made false declarations with German, Belgian and Dutch customs authorities that the substances were recycled. The company was selling the gases to customers across Europe.
The European Chemical Industry Council, CEFIC, believes that the CFC smuggling problem is still severe. 'Sales levels of CFCs have remained inexplicably low in comparison with the expected market trend. This points to one thing: a thriving black market in CFCs,' comments Maurice Verhille, chairman of the European Fluorocarbon Technical Committee.
Verhille thinks that the most effective policy for the EU would be to institute a total ban on the sale and use of CFCs. He also opposes its proposals to introduce stricter controls of hydrochlorofluorocarbons, which are 88-99 per cent less ozone-depleting than CFCs. 'There is still a significant volume of CFCs present in the market, and it will be difficult to establish whether they are illegal or not.' The ban would force users to switch to HCFC and to HFCs.
