26 February 2004 – Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo Albert today said that the Philippines joins the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in welcoming the entry into force last Wednesday of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent
(PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade.

“The Philippines continues to support the creation of binding international norms that seek to protect our fragile environment while at the same time allowing sustainable development,” Secretary Albert said.

The Secretary said that the Rotterdam Convention presents a viable middle ground between abstention from using allowable chemicals to the possible abuse of chemicals like pesticides.

“The Rotterdam Treaty embodies what we have learned over the centuries.  We clearly made mistakes in the use of chemicals and pesticides.  We have learned from these mistakes and this treaty seeks to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated,” the Secretary said.

This treaty will enable developing countries, in particular, to be able to reap the benefits that chemicals and pesticides can offer while ensuring that their development is environmentally sustainable”, she said.

The Rotterdam Convention enables countries to decide which potentially hazardous chemicals they want to import and to exclude those they cannot manage safely.  Where trade is permitted, requirements for labelling and providing information on potential health and environmental effects will promote the safer use of
chemicals.

The Convention starts with 27 chemicals, but as many as 15 more pesticides and industrial chemicals have been identified for inclusion at the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention.  They include a range of highly toxic pesticides that are traded internationally, such as parathion and monocrotophos, as well as five additional forms of asbestos (including chrysotile asbestos, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of asbestos presently used and traded).  The experience gained in evaluating these chemicals will facilitate the addition of more substances in the future.

The first meeting of the Conference of the Parties will take place in Geneva from 20 to 24 September 2004.  In addition to incorporating additional chemicals into the Convention, this meeting will make decisions on several important administrative and procedural topics, including rules of procedure, financial rules, provisions for non-compliance and the physical location of the permanent Secretariat.  The meeting will also establish a chemical review committee that will evaluate future chemicals for the Convention’s list and consider such
issues as its relationship to the World Trade Organization and a strategy for regional delivery of technical assistance.

Some 70,000 different chemicals are available on the market today, and around 1,500 new ones are introduced every year.  This poses a major challenge to many governments that must attempt to monitor and manage these potentially dangerous substances.  Many pesticides that have been banned or whose use has been severely restricted in industrialized countries are still marketed and used in
developing countries.

As of 19 February 2004, there were 60 State Parties to the treaty.  The Philippines signed the treaty on 11 September 1998 and is in the process of completing its ratification of the treaty. END.