International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management
Among the most significant international regulations which concern the distribution and use of plant protection products is the International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management ("Code of Conduct").
The Code of Conduct was one of the first voluntary arrangements for improving food safety and protecting consumers and the environment from undesirable effects caused by the use of plant protection products. It was adopted in 1985 by the 23rd FAO Conference and later amended with regard to the developing PIC procedure of the Rotterdam Convention, adopted in 1998. Its recommendations are directed towards the governments of countries which export pesticides, the plant protection product industry and countries which import such products.
It contains voluntary behavioural standards for trading and handling plant protection products, and is now accepted world-wide as a standard for plant protection products. The handling of plant protection products should be seen as an essential part of any extensive chemical management and of sustainable agricultural development.
Important principles from Agenda 21, which was adopted by the Conference of the United Nations on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, such as the right to information and the life cycle concept for chemicals, were included in the FAO Code of Conduct. According to the Code of Conduct, industry should, amongst other things, assure that plant protection products are exported in a fair way, above all to countries with limited or no system of regulations (Article 3.3.2). Furthermore, industry should take an active interest in following up their products right up to the end-user (Article 3.4.6) and sell fewer hazardous products (Article 5.3.2.1). At the same time, the Code of Conduct emphasises the significance of co-operation and the exchange of information between governments, non-governmental organisations and industry.
Following the adoption of the Rotterdam Convention in 1998, those parts of the Code of Conduct which referred to the PIC procedure became superfluous. The Code of Conduct was last revised in 2013.
An FAO expert group develops and revises technical guidelines to specific topics of the Code of Conduct in order to provide direct practical guidance and assistance to the pesticide regulatory authorities and to other stakeholders.
To the topic: