The fifth meeting of the Rotterdam Convention Chemical Review Committee took place from 23-27 March 2009, in Rome, Italy.

The candidate pesticides and industrial chemicals sent to the Committee at its fifth session included: endosulfan, azinphos-methyl, methyl parathion, mirex, paraquat, phorate, hexachlorobenzene and hexachlorobutadiene. The Committee concluded that only one notification met the criteria for inclusion in Annex III of the Convention for azinphos-methyl, endosulfan, phorate, hexachlorobenzene and hexachlorobutadiene. The Committee decided to establish groups to draft rationales on how the notifications for azinphos-methyl, endosulfan, phorate, hexachlorobenzene and hexachlorobutadiene met the criteria for inclusion in annex III of the Convention, and the Committee subsequently adopted these rationales. Regarding endosulfan, the Committee was unable to reach consensus on the notifications submitted by the Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal) due to differing views on whether all the required criteria had been met. The Committee adopted a decision on endosulfan, the rationale for that decision and a timetable for preparing a decision guidance document (DGD) inter-sessionally, based on the notifications submitted by the Sahelian countries and the EU. The draft DGD will be reviewed at CRC-6 along with any unresolved issues. The Committee also considered and approved the draft DGDs on alachlor and aldicarb that had been prepared inter-sessionally by the task groups. The Committee decided to send the recommendations to include alachlor and aldicarb into Annex III of the Convention together with the draft DGDs to the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Rotterdam Convention.
Links to further information
Rotterdam Convention website
Basel Convention Bulletin, May 2009