What to know about the plastic pollution treaty talks that have concluded in South Korea

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) — Negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution have concluded in Busan, South Korea without reaching an agreement.

This was supposed to be the fifth and final round to produce the first legally binding treaty on plastics pollution, including in the oceans, by the end of 2024.

Here’s what to know about the talks:

After a week of talks and with time running out early Monday, negotiators agreed to meet again next year. They don’t yet have firm plans.

This has been the largest session with more than 3,300 participants at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, including delegates from over 170 countries and representatives of nearly 450 organizations.

“We have tested the resilience of our planet to its limit,” INC Executive Secretary Jyoti Mathur-Filipp said as the meeting closed. “Now is the time for us to push our own limits and honor the trust placed in us.”

The most contentious issue of the talks has been whether there will be a limit on the amount of plastic that companies are allowed to produce. Panama proposed text for the treaty to address plastic production and support for it quickly grew to over 100 countries.

It was a compromise to build consensus because it did not include a numerical target or production cap. Instead, it proposed that countries would adopt a global target at a later conference of the parties meeting.

Juan Carlos Monterrey, the head of Panama’s delegation, said Monday that the nations standing up for a strong treaty may have been delayed, but they will not be stopped.

Their ambition prevailed at these negotiations because they banded together, said Ana Rocha, who leads international plastic policy work at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.

“This one was a moment that these countries were able to stand and say, ‘No, we are not going to take it this way. We are going to fight,’” she said after the meeting adjourned.

Most of the negotiations in Busan took place behind closed doors, leaving few opportunities for any observers to help shape the treaty.

The International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Plastics said as the session closed that they were profoundly disappointed with how the process unfolded, and condemned the draft of the global treaty for excluding Indigenous voices and failing to uphold their rights.

U.N. Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen said she has not heard a single delegate say they would not want this treaty.

“We may close this session today but the world will still be watching tomorrow,” she said in her closing remarks. “And the plastic pollution will still be arriving on our shores, and so our work will continue.”

Sivendra Michael, Fiji’s secretary for the environment and climate change, said they must not hesitate — they can develop a treaty that becomes a lasting legacy, demonstrating their resilience and commitment to the planet and future generations.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Juan Carlos Monterrey, head of Panama's delegation, speaks during a press conference at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in Busan, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul speaks during a plenary of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in Busan, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Juan Benito Marcias, a member of The International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Plastic, speaks during a press conference at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in Busan, South Korea, Saturday, Nov. 30 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, gestures before the start of a plenary of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in Busan, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean environment activists protest calling for a strong global plastics treaty outside of the venue for the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in Busan, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's ambassador to the United States said Sunday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was successful in getting President-elect Donald Trump and key Cabinet nominees to understand that lumping Canada in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S. is unfair.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador in Washington, told The Associated Press in an interview that Trudeau's dinner with Trump on Friday was a very important step in trying to get Trump to back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner.

Hillman was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump.

Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said in a social media post last Monday he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.

Hillman said Trudeau asked to see Trump in person in a phone call Monday and Trump invited him to dinner on Friday.

At the dinner, Hillman said the case was made to Trump that there is no comparison between the Canada-U.S. border and Mexico-U.S. border.

“The message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood,” Hillman said.

Hillman said the bulk of Friday night's dinner centered around Trump's border concerns. The ambassador said a priority of Trudeau's was to point out the degree of difference.

Hillman said there really is no comparison, noting there is essentially zero trafficking of fentanyl from Canada to the United States. She said there are seizures but authorities say those are personal use seizures and not criminal trafficking. She said that 99.8% of the fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities in the U.S. comes from Mexico.

“Also with respect to individuals, illegal individuals crossing illegally, Canada last year was less than one percent, 0.6 percent were of total interceptions from Canada,” Hillman said.

U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Hillman said the migrant numbers are coming down since the summer.

“The facts are hard to deny,” Hillman said.

But Hillman said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.

She also noted an agreement between Canada and the United States that allows for migrants caught crossing illegally into the United States to be sent back to Canada. She said that was talked about. She said Mexico and the U.S. do not have a similar agreement.

At the dinner that lasted three hours, Hillman said America's trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Hillman said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. are energy exports and prices have been high.

“Trade balances are something that he focuses so it’s important to engage in that conversation but to put it into context," Hillman said.

“We are one tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the U.S. than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that."

Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department and be energy czar, Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser, and the three men’s wives.

Also at the dinner were David McCormick, just elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser under Trump, as well as Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff.

Hillman said Canadian and incoming Trump administration officials will work on Trump's concerns in the coming weeks. Trump called the talks “productive” on Sunday in a social media post but signaled no retreat from his tariff pledge.

Hillman said Trump and Trudeau "get along well" and the dinner was also a chance to socialize. She said Trump used his iPad to play music and she said Trump told Trudeau he's a big fan of Canadian singer Celine Dion

“I don’t think it could have been better to be frank. Okay, I’ll take that back, I’ll change that. If he obviously said there would be no tariffs that would have been better but there was no realistic expectation of that,” Hillman said.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks through the lobby of the Delta Hotel by Marriott, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE - President Donald Trump greets Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau upon his arrival at the White House, June 20, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at an event where it was announced that Prince Edward Island has signed on to the Federal School food program, in Mount Stewart, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Ron Ward/The Canadian Press via AP)