Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) is urging the Trump administration to stay engaged in United Nations talks to craft a global plastics treaty.
“You now have the opportunity to reassert American leadership and credibility by leading negotiations to achieve agreement on a treaty that aligns with our domestic legal frameworks and with the Trump Administration’s manufacturing agenda,” Capito wrote in a recent letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Without your leadership,” she added, “foreign bureaucrats could negotiate a treaty that goes beyond U.S. law and increases costs for American businesses and consumers.”
The State Department generally does not comment on congressional communications, a spokesperson said Friday in response to a request for comment on the letter.
After failing to reach an agreement on reducing plastics pollution by last December’s self-imposed deadline, negotiators are scheduled to resume discussions in August in Geneva, Switzerland, according to the U.N., which pegs the total amount of plastic waste in 2024 at 400 million tons.