Rotterdam Convention

The Australian Government has co-sponsored a proposal with Switzerland, Mali and Burkina Faso to reform the Rotterdam Convention to facilitate the listing of chrysotile asbestos on an annex to the Convention.

The proposal seeks to establish a new annex, listing chemicals that have been found by the Chemical Review Committee to meet the criteria for listing in Annex III, but have not because the CoP has not been able to agree to their listing.

It also proposes that the Prior Informed Consent procedure for a chemical listed in the new annex would require an importing Party to provide its explicit consent to import that chemical.

The proposal will be considered at the next Conference of the Parties (CoP) 11 in May 2023.

The Proposal can be accessed from the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Convention Secretariat website.