We (U.S GAO) disagree. First, as EPA’s experience has shown, voluntary programs can also take years to implement—and in some cases may never attain effective broad coverage since in a voluntary scheme, the agency has no enforcement recourse against reluctant participants. Second, given the widespread willingness to export in apparent violation of EPA’s one existing electronics export regulation (the CRT rule), including some exporters’ admitting knowledge of the rule, we do not assume that the industry will voluntarily agree to adopt and adhere to broader, meaningful export controls in the absence of a broader, better enforced regulatory framework."

Meta-Actor: Government

Source Document: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d081044.pdf

Date: August 2008