This ground-breaking study is the first book to take a comprehensive approach to the subject of transboundary shipments of hazardous substances and the instruments employed for regulating such shipments. It fully explains which types of trade regulating instruments are employed by which agreements, and then goes on to evaluate the pros and cons of these instruments with respect to their compatibility with international legal norms, especially WTO law. Taken in conjunction with other trade-regulating measures, this analysis assesses the PIC concept/ procedure from three perspectives: its effect on state sovereignty, its potential for enhancing environmental and health protection in importing states, and its relationship with the free-trade regime, represented primarily by the GATT and the SPS and TBT Agreements of the WTO. The analysis also includes coverage of the pertinent export laws of the EU and the United-States, and of the export and import laws of India pertaining to potentially hazardous substances and products.