[5][6] Although the United States is not a party to the treaty, export shipments of plastic waste from the United States are now "criminal traffic as soon as the ships get on the high seas," according to the Basel Action Network (BAN), and carriers of such shipments may face liability, because the transportation of plastic waste is prohibited in just about every other country.

[7] With the tightening of environmental laws (for example, RCRA) in developed nations in the 1970s, disposal costs for hazardous waste rose dramatically.

At the same time, the globalization of shipping made cross-border movement of waste easier, and many less developed countries were desperate for foreign currency.

Although most of this waste was shipped to other developed countries, a number of high-profile incidents of hazardous waste-dumping led to calls for regulation.

At its meeting that took place from 27 November to 1 December 2006, the parties of the Basel Agreement focused on issues of electronic waste and the dismantling of ships.

The United States is a notable non-party to the convention and has a number of such agreements for allowing the shipping of hazardous wastes to Basel Party countries.

According to Article 12, parties are directed to adopt a protocol that establishes liability rules and procedures that are appropriate for damage that comes from the movement of hazardous waste across borders.

The amendment has been accepted by 86 countries[12] and the European Union, but has not entered into force (as that requires ratification by three-fourths of the member states to the convention).

[13] The European Union fully implemented the Basel Ban in its Waste Shipment Regulation (EWSR), making it legally binding in all EU member states.

In the light of the blockage concerning the entry into force of the Ban Amendment, Switzerland and Indonesia have launched a "Country-led Initiative" (CLI) to discuss in an informal manner a way forward to ensure that the trans boundary movements of hazardous wastes, especially to developing countries and countries with economies in the transition, do not lead to an unsound management of hazardous wastes.

This discussion aims at identifying and finding solutions to the reasons why hazardous wastes are still brought to countries that are not able to treat them in a safe manner.

[14] In the wake of popular outcry, in May 2019 most of the world's countries, but not the United States, agreed to amend the Basel Convention to include plastic waste as a regulated material.

The United States, which produces an annual 42 million metric tons of plastic waste, more than any other country in the world,[15] opposed the amendment, but since it is not a party to the treaty it did not have an opportunity to vote on it to try to block it.

Information about, and visual images of, wildlife, such as seabirds, ingesting plastic, and scientific findings that nanoparticles do penetrate through the blood–brain barrier were reported to have fueled public sentiment for coordinated international legally binding action.

[5][16][6] Although the United States is not a party to the treaty, export shipments of plastic waste from the United States are now "criminal traffic as soon as the ships get on the high seas," according to the Basel Action Network (BAN), and carriers of such shipments may face liability, because the Basel Convention as amended in May 2019 prohibits the transportation of plastic waste to just about every other country.

BAN works to curb trans-border trade in hazardous electronic waste, land dumping, incineration, and the use of prison labor.