Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 18 • 14th October 2005

Rotterdam Clashes on Compliance-Financing Links, Stalls on Osbestos

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Delegates gathered in Rome, Italy, from 27 to 30 September for the second meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC COP-2) where they discussed the link between compliance with the Convention and financing, as well as the adoption of new substances, without reaching agreement. The Convention’s prior informed consent (PIC) procedure aims to promote shared responsibility between exporting and importing countries in protecting human health and the environment from the harmful effects of certain hazardous chemicals that are traded internationally. However, the link between compliance with the Convention’s provisions for information exchange about the characteristics of certain hazardous chemicals and financing remains unclear. During the negotiations, links between these two issues appeared time and again, with developing countries arguing that unless they receive financial and technical support they will not be able to comply and present complete notifications including local risk assessments. Developed countries responded that compliance and financing were separate issues, with some noting that it was in the developing countries’ own interest to comply with the Convention, and they should not wait for additional funds to make all efforts to comply with their obligations.

Another important set of issues related to the procedures for adding new chemicals to Annex III, which lists the chemicals subject to the PIC procedure and the desirability of including more chemicals in the list. A number of delegates and NGOs said that the PIC process would be futile if countries single-handedly had the power to prevent the addition of hazardous substances from the list for economic or political reasons. Many point to the ongoing opposition by Canada, the Russian Federation, India and others to include chrysotile asbestos in the PIC procedure (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 23 September 2004, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/04-09-23/inbrief.htm#1). All these issues will be taken up again at COP-3 in Geneva from 7 to 13 October 2006.

Daily reporting provided by IISD Linkages, http://www.iisd.ca/chemical/pic/cop2/.

ICTSD reporting; ENB, Vol. 15 No. 129, 3 October 2005.