Bangladesh is joining the Rotterdam Convention to strengthen international cooperation on the import, export and management of hazardous chemicals and pesticides. The proposal, brought by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, was approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Sunday, 18 October.
After the meeting Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Ghani said the harmful effects of many toxic chemicals and pesticides need to be known in advance. Joining the convention, he said, will let Bangladesh decide whether to import them with that knowledge. Many countries are members; Bangladesh had so far stayed out.
The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade was adopted on 10 September 1998 and came into force on 24 February 2004. It now has 167 member countries; among SAARC members only Bangladesh and Bhutan had not joined.
According to a Cabinet Division statement, membership brings help in building capacity to manage hazardous chemicals, more foreign funding for related projects, a database of hazardous chemicals and support in tracking their movement. It also allows advance decisions on chemicals listed in Annex III of the convention and shared responsibility between importing and exporting countries.
Under Article 14, Bangladesh will be able to exchange scientific, technical, economic and legal information on hazardous chemicals and pesticides with other members, and under Article 16 it can receive technical assistance from the Rotterdam secretariat.
For agriculture the significance is direct: Bangladesh is joining the international system through which countries learn, before importing a pesticide, whether it has been banned or severely restricted elsewhere.
Reporting: staff correspondent, Barta24.com
Photo: CDC Global / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Barta24
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