Exide suit threat just posturing, says Smith

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American battery company Exide's threat to sue the Government amounts to "commercial brinkmanship" intended to secure a monopoly on valuable used batteries, Environment Minister Nick Smith says.

The company yesterday confirmed it planned to sue Commerce Minister Simon Power for allowing exports of used batteries which it believes breach international treaty commitments and are forcing it out of business in New Zealand.

Exide, whose lead acid battery reprocessing plant in Petone has a history of discharging toxic lead particles into the atmosphere, says it is starved of used batteries and on the verge of closing down at the cost of 40 jobs.

"We do not have any batteries to recycle because the Government has granted permits to export nearly 100,000 tonnes to developing countries like the Philippines and to Korea since January 1, 2008," Exide's Australasian managing director, John Cowpe, said.

He said the Government had international obligations under the Basel Convention and other agreements to favour New Zealand facilities where used lead acid batteries could be disposed of or recycled in an environmentally sound and efficient manner, and to limit the international transport of hazardous waste.

Cowpe said Exide was filing proceedings to sue Power as minister responsible for the Ministry of Economic Development "in his capacity as the decision-maker for permits to export used lead acid batteries up to June 30, 2011".

Exide's lawyers met ministry officials yesterday to discuss the matter and plan to file proceedings with the High Court within days.

A spokesman for Power said the minister was satisfied New Zealand had been in compliance with its Basel Convention obligations.

Smith said policy on exports of lead acid batteries would be reviewed but there was "a little bit of commercial brinkmanship" in Exide's legal proceedings.

"They would prefer that the Basel Convention prevented the export of material that would enable them to get a monopoly on the supply of used batteries in New Zealand," the Environment Minister told Radio NZ. "Lead has become a very valuable commodity in recent years."

The Exide smelter is the only battery recycling facility in New Zealand and Cowpe said it met "all of its obligations to be environmentally compliant and efficient".

However, it has been fined twice for discharging excessive amounts of lead-contaminated dust into the atmosphere and has suffered an explosion and a fire in separate incidents that have fuelled neighbours' fears of further discharges of harmful material.

Exide has found an unlikely ally in the Green Party, which argues that New Zealand's hazardous waste should be processed in this country as much as possible.