The fifteenth meeting of the Chemical Review Committee (CRC-15) of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade will be held from 8-10 October 2019 at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy.
The CRC was established to review chemicals and pesticide formulations according to the criteria set out by the Convention in Annexes II and IV respectively and make recommendations to the Conference of the Parties for listing such chemicals in Annex III. Listing under the Rotterdam Convention does not constitute a ban, but initiates an information-sharing process between parties to the Convention trading in these chemicals or severely hazardous pesticide formulations.
At its 15th meeting, the CRC will consider the draft decision guidance document for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), its salts and PFOA-related compounds, developed by the intersessional drafting group. PFOA, its salts and related compounds have a number of uses, including in non-stick cookware, stain-resistant carpets and fabrics, among several others.
The Committee is also scheduled to review the notifications of final regulatory action for:
- Amitrole (used as a herbicide), submitted by the EU and Thailand;
- Decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE, used as a flame retardant), submitted by Canada, Japan, and Norway; and
- Nonylphenols and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPs/NPEs, used as surfactants in the manufacture of laundry detergents, personal hygiene, automotive, latex paints, and garden care products), submitted by the EU, South Africa, and Switzerland.
Over the past few years, with both parties and the Secretariat engaging in robust capacity building measures, the work of the Committee has become more efficient. This is reflected in the quality of discussion and in the chairing of the meeting, as discussed in our analysis from CRC-14.
Please see our summary from CRC-14 for more information about CRC’s recent work and what to expect for the upcoming meeting.
IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) meeting coverage, has provided daily web updates and a summary and analysis report from CRC-15. The summary and analysis is now available in HTML and PDF.