The Twelfth Meeting of the Parties decided:
1. to request the Ozone Secretariat, in consultation, as appropriate, with the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel, the United Nations Environment Programme, the discussion group on customs codes for ozone-depleting substances and international trade and customs organizations, to examine the options for studying the following issues and to report on these options at the twenty-first meeting of the Open-ended Working Group for consideration by the Parties in 2001:
(a) current national legislation on the labeling of ozone-depleting substances, mixtures containing ozone-depleting substances and products containing ozone-depleting substances;
(b) the need for, scope of and cost of implementation of a universal labeling and/or classification system for ozone-depleting substances, mixtures containing ozone-depleting substances and products containing ozone-depleting substances, including the feasibility of the introduction of a producer-specific marker, identifier or identification methodology;
(c) methods for sharing experience between Parties on issues related to classification, labeling, compliance and incidents of illegal trade;
(d) the differences between products containing ozone-depleting substances and mixtures containing ozone-depleting substances, and the possibility of the creation of a list of categories of products containing ozone-depleting substances with the corresponding Harmonized System/Combined Nomenclature classification;
(e) possible guidance for customs authorities on how to proceed with the illegally traded ozone-depleting substances seized on the border;
2. to express appreciation for the activities of the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics of the United Nations Environment Programme and to encourage further work with regard to providing information on the above to Article 5 Parties and countries with economies in transition, specifically through customs training at the regional and/or national level.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/12/9, Decision XII/110).
The Thirteenth Meeting of the Parties decided:
1. to request the Ozone Secretariat, in consultation, as appropriate, with the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel, the World Customs Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (UNEP/DTIE) and the World Trade Organization to undertake a study and present a report with practical suggestions on the issues contained in decision XII/10 to the Open-ended Working Group at its 22nd meeting, in 2002, for consideration by the Parties in 2002;
2. that in preparing the study, the Secretariat should use decision XII/10 as terms of reference and should study solely those issues discussed in that decision.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/13/10, Decision XIII/12).
The Fourteenth Meeting of the Parties decided:
1. to encourage each Party to consider means and continued efforts to monitor international transit trade;
2. to encourage all Parties to introduce economic incentives that do not impair international trade but which are appropriate and consistent with international trade law, to promote the use of ODS substitutes and products (including equipment) containing them or designed for them, and technologies utilizing them; and to consider demand control measures in addressing illegal trade;
3. to urge each Party that has not already done so to introduce in its national customs classification system the separate sub-divisions for the most commonly traded HCFCs and other ODS contained in the World Customs Organization recommendation of 25 June 1999 and request that Parties provide a copy to the Secretariat; and to urge all Parties to take due account of any new recommendations by the World Customs Organization once they are agreed;
4. to provide the following further clarification of the difference between a controlled substance, or a mixture containing a controlled substance, and a product containing a controlled substance contained in Article 1 of the Montreal Protocol and further explained in Decision I/12A:
(a) no matter which customs code is allocated to a controlled substance or mixture containing a controlled substance, such substance or mixture, when in a container used for transportation or storage as defined in Decision 1/12A, shall be considered to be a “controlled substance” and thus shall be subject to the phase-out schedules agreed upon by the Parties;
(b) the clarification contained in subparagraph (a) above concerns, in particular, controlled substances or mixtures containing controlled substances classified under customs codes related to their function and sometimes wrongly considered to be “products”, thus avoiding any controls resulting from the Montreal Protocol phase-out schedules;
5. to encourage all Parties to exchange information and intensify joint efforts to improve means of identification of ODS and prevention of illegal ODS traffic. In particular those Parties concerned should make even greater use of the UNEP regional networks and other networks in order to increase co-operation on illegal trade issues and enforcement activities;
6. to request the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics of the United Nations Environment Programme through the Executive Committee to report to the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties on the activities of the regional networks with regard to means of combating illegal trade; to request the Executive Committee to consider making an evaluation of customs officers training and licensing systems projects a priority and, if possible, report to the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties;
7. to invite Parties, in order to facilitate exchange of information, to report to the Ozone Secretariat fully proved cases of illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances. The illegally traded quantities should not be counted against a Party’s consumption provided the Party does not place the said quantities on its own market. The Secretariat is requested to collect any information on illegal trade received from the Parties and to disseminate it to all Parties. The Secretariat is also requested to initiate exchanges with countries to explore options for reducing illegal trade;
8. to request the Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund to continue to provide financial and technical assistance to Article 5 Parties to introduce, develop and apply inspection technologies and equipment in customs to combat illegal ODS traffic and to monitor ODS trade, and to report to the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on activities to date.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro.14/9, Decision XIV/7).
The Forty-third Meeting of the Executive Committee decided:
(a) to forward Part I, Sections 1 and 2, of document UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/43/58/Corr.1, as amended and updated, to the Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties; and
(b) to report to the Parties that the Executive Committee would undertake a new evaluation of projects on customs officers training and on licensing systems, to be presented to the Seventeenth Meeting.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/43/61, Decision 43/41, para. 160).