Article 12 of the Convention outlines the obligations and the process for Export Notification. Export notification is a mechanism to promote the exchange of information among countries regarding banned and severely restricted chemicals. The process alerts Parties that they are receiving imports of a chemical that has been banned or severely restricted in the exporting Party.
What is Export Notification?
The process of Export Notification is a mechanism to promote the exchange of information among Parties regarding banned and severely restricted chemicals.
Export notification is different from the PIC procedure in that it does not ask Parties for a decision regarding future imports of the chemical. It simply informs them that a shipment of a chemical that has been banned or severely restricted in the exporting Party is being shipped.
The Convention requires a Party to send an export notification to an importing Party prior to the first export in a calendar year of a chemical that is banned or severely restricted in its own territory. The exporting Party is also required to provide an updated export notification if it has adopted a final regulatory action that makes a major change in its previous regulatory decision. An example of such a change might be where the chemical was originally severely restricted and subsequently the exporting country took further action to ban the chemical. The importing Party has to acknowledge receipt of the export notification to the exporting Party. If no such receipt is received by the exporting country after 30 days, the exporting Party is required to send a second notification and make reasonable efforts to ensure that the importing Party receives the notification.
The obligation for an exporting Party to send export notifications to another Party ends when the chemical is included in Annex III to the Convention, the importing Party has provided a response for the chemical and the Secretariat has circulated to all Parties the importing Parties’ import responses for that chemical.
It is important to note that, unlike Article 11 on the obligations of countries concerning exports of chemicals subject to the PIC procedure, Article 12 on export notifications is silent on differential obligations regarding the category of chemical for which the final regulatory action was taken. As a result, countries have interpreted their obligation for export notifications in a variety of ways:
Some have interpreted their responsibilities such that they provide an export notification for a dual use chemical that is banned or severely restricted domestically in one category irrespective of what the intended use category will be for the chemical in the importing Party.
Others have interpreted their obligations to parallel those for chemicals subject to the convention. Consequently, they will only provide an export notification when the intended use in the importing Party is in the same use category as that for which the exporting country’s final regulatory action was taken.
Parties should make their own decision as to how they will interpret and implement export notification with regard to this matter.
At present there is no standard form for the transmission of an export notification. The minimum information that is required to be included in an export notification is specified in Annex V of the Convention.
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All Parties are informed about a potentially hazardous chemical when a summary of a notification of final regulatory action to ban or severely restrict its use in a Party is published in Appendix I of the PIC Circular. Export notifications thus serve as an individual reminder to importing Parties of a final regulatory action taken by the exporting Party. An export notification alerts the importing Party to the fact that the chemical may be in use in their country. The importing Party may take the opportunity to seek further information on the chemical from the exporting Party or from other sources and to consider whether it might need to apply any risk management actions regarding the chemical concerned. |
Article 13 outlines the information that is to accompany exported chemicals, both those that are included in Annex III to the Convention and those that are banned or severely restricted in the exporting Party. The purpose of this provision is to ensure that information is provided to importing Parties to assist them in minimizing risks to human health and the environment from such chemicals.
The specific requirements include:
labelling that provides adequate information on the hazards and risks posed by the chemical to human health and the environment;
a copy of an up-to-date Safety Data Sheet (SDS) in an internationally recognized format is to be sent to the importer. The information on the label and the SDS should be in the official language of the importing country as far as is practicable.
Exporting Parties are also to ensure that exports of chemicals that are subject to environmental and health labelling in their territories are subject to labelling requirements that ensure adequate availability of information with regard to risks and/or hazards to human health or the environment.
It is also a requirement of the Convention that shipping documents for exports of chemicals subject to the Convention should bear any harmonized system customs code assigned by the World Customs Organization (WCO) to chemicals subject to the Convention.
