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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).
The
Sixteenth Meeting of the Parties decided:
1) to
note with appreciation the notes by the Secretariat on information reported by
the Parties on illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances and on streamlining
the exchange of information on reducing illegal trade in ozone-depleting
substances;
2) further
to note with appreciation the report by the Division of Technology, Industry
and Economics of the United Nations Environment Programme on activities of the
regional networks with regard to means of combating illegal trade;
3) to
note the need for coordination of efforts by Parties at national and
international level to suppress illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances;
4) to
request the Ozone Secretariat to gather further ideas from the Parties on
further areas of cooperation between Parties and other bodies in combating
illegal trade such as development of a system of tracking trade in
ozone-depleting substances and improvement of communications between exporting
and importing countries in the light of the information provided in the note by
the Secretariat on streamlining the exchange of information on reducing illegal
trade in ozone-depleting substances and the report by the Division of
Technology, Industry and Economics of the United Nations Environment Programme
on activities of the regional networks with regard to means of combating
illegal trade;
5. further to request the Ozone Secretariat to
produce draft terms of reference for a study on the feasibility of developing a
system of tracking trade in ozone-depleting substances and the cost
implications of carrying out such a study, taking into account the proposal presented
by Sri Lanka;
6) to
request in addition the Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat to convene
in the first half of 2005, and provided that funds are available, a workshop of
experts from Parties to the Montreal Protocol to develop specific areas and a
conceptual framework of cooperation in the light both of information already
available and of the reports to be produced by the Secretariat pursuant to
paragraphs 4 and 5 above and make appropriate proposals to the Meeting of the
Parties;
7. to consider the information on the outcome of
the workshop to be convened by the Ozone Secretariat at the Seventeenth Meeting
of the Parties.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro.16/17,
Decision XVI/33).
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