On 5 Jun 2013, the Australian National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) announced a fee structure for companies seeking approval for import/export of certain industrial chemicals under the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure of the Rotterdam Convention. The PIC procedure is free of charge in the past and will incur administration costs of 750 AUD and 1700 AUD respectively for Import/Export authorization and notification since 1 Jul 2013.
All the chemicals subject to the new fee structure are coming from the Annex III listed industrial chemicals under the PIC procedure of the Rotterdam Convention, such as polybrominated biphenyls: (hexa; octa; and deca), tris (2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate, polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated terphenyls, tetraethyl lead and tetramethyl lead.
Rotterdam Convention serves as the reference document for shared responsibilities in hazardous chemicals communication during the global trade activities. The chemicals contained in Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention are subject to the PIC procedure as suggested by statement of the Convention. The sixth meeting of the Rotterdam Conference has just been concluded on 10 May in Geneva, Switzerland.
