Background information on the Rotterdam Convention (PIC Procedure)

The diplomatic conference for adopting and signing the PIC Convention was hosted by the Netherlands on 10 and 11 September 1998 in Rotterdam. Previous to this, the final text for the Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade was drawn up by 95 states in March 1998 following a 2-year period of negotiations. The Rotterdam Convention was ratified in November 2003 by Armenia, the 50th contracting party and entered into force 90 days later on 24 February 2004. The PIC Procedure has therefore become public international law. Germany (PIC law) and the European Community ratified the Convention (Regulation (EC) No. 649/2012 on the export and import of hazardous chemicals).

The aim of the Convention

"Prior Informed Consent" (PIC) means 'prior consent following notification' and means that countries who are involved in the procedure are informed about the risks and hazards of certain hazardous chemicals and certain hazardous plant protection products and pesticides. Based on this information, these countries can then decide whether or not they agree on an import, or whether they only agree under certain conditions. Should products be given the go-ahead, certain requirements have to be complied with regarding labelling and information on possible hazards for health and the environment.

The protection of farmer, worker and consumer health is of particular importance, as is the protection of the environment in developing countries. Numerous plant protection products and pesticides which are banned in industrial countries or whose use is severely restricted are still used in developing countries. The aim of the PIC Procedure is to encourage the shared responsibility of export and import countries. If a contracting party decides against an import, this chemical may neither be manufactured within the country nor imported by another country. The PIC Procedure should not lead to trade barriers.

Regulated chemicals

The Convention covers banned or severely restricted chemicals and severely hazardous plant protection product and pesticide formulations. It does not include anaesthetics and psychotropic substances, radioactive material, waste, chemical weapons, pharmaceutical products (incl. medicines for humans and animals), chemicals used as food additives, food and chemicals which probably do not harm human health or the environment in large amounts, provided they are imported for trial or analysis purposes or by individual persons for personal use in appropriate amounts. Precursors for chemical weapons are not excepted.

To be included in the list of PIC substances, a chemical, plant protection product or pesticide must be banned or its use severely restricted for health or environmental reasons in at least two countries from two different “PIC” regions. Severely hazardous plant protection product formulations (= preparations) which cause problems under the application conditions in developing or threshold countries may also be nominated for inclusion in the PIC Procedure.

The initial list of PIC chemicals consisted of 22 plant protection products (including 5 hazardous plant protection product formulations) and 5 industrial chemicals. These substances were taken from the voluntary PIC Procedure. Transitional agreements were created to avoid gaps until the Convention entered into force. Meanwhile, further plant protection products have been included in the PIC Procedure (see below).

Information exchange provisions

The Convention plans an extensive information catalogue which can be used together by the contracting parties with the help of the PIC Secretariat, operated by UNEP and the FAO in Geneva and Rome:

A contracting party must inform the other contracting parties and the PIC Secretariat about bans or severe restrictions which have been imposed.

Amongst other tasks, the PIC Secretariat has the job of bundling the information received through notifications and passing this on to the contracting parties. The Secretariat must still inform the parties if a chemical has been included in the PIC Procedure. The contracting parties are informed once every 6 months on import decisions made by the other countries by the Secretariat in a so called 'PIC Circular'.

If a developing or threshold country hears of problems with a severely hazardous plant protection product formulation, it can propose this formulation for inclusion in the PIC Procedure.

If a banned or severely restricted chemical is exported for the first time by a contracting party, this party must notify the importing contracting party of the export. Notification of export must be given before the very first export and must be repeated before the first export of each new calendar year. It must also be repeated if, within a certain period of time, the exporting country has not received a confirmation of receipt from the importing country.

PIC chemicals and chemicals which are banned nationally or severely restricted, and which are exported, have certain labelling requirements to fulfil. In addition, information on risks and hazards for health and the environment must be available and adequate.

Exporting countries must pass on information from the PIC Secretariat to their exporters on bans or severe restrictions of certain chemicals and plant protection products and pesticides. In addition, they must ensure that exporters comply with the import decisions made by importing countries.

Organisation

To ensure that the system works properly, each contracting party should designate one or more national authorities (DNAs) which act in their name and take over the necessary administrative tasks. In order to be able to carry out their tasks effectively the contracting parties must provide the DNAs with sufficient resources. The Rotterdam Convention expects that the contracting parties pay particular attention to the needs of developing and threshold countries and work together in promoting technical help for developing the infrastructure and capacities in the area of chemical management for implementing the Convention. Countries with more advanced chemical control programs should provide technical help, including training, to develop infrastructures and capacities to be able to handle chemicals safely during their entire life cycle. The implementation of the Convention should be monitored by the conference of the contracting parties and supported.

At the first Conference of the Parties (COP1), which took place on 20.-24.9.2004 in Geneva, the (CRC) was founded which consists of 31 chemicals management experts designated by governments. Observers from non-contracting parties, governmental and non-governmental organisations can be registered. One of the CRC's tasks is to analyse notifications and to submit proposals to the Conference of the Parties on which substances should be included in the PIC procedure.