The Hague, 7 September 2004

Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina: OPCW National Authorities Discuss International Chemical Transfers and the Chemical Weapons Ban

The National Authorities that implement the Chemical Weapons Convention have begun in Buenos Aires their three-day technical meeting on customs-related aspects of the Convention’s regime, regulating the international transfer of certain toxic chemicals.

This technical meeting, hosted jointly by the Government of Argentina and the OPCW, is the third in a series, following technical meetings on this subject conducted in Spain in Rivas-Vaciamadrid in 2002 and in Barcelona in 2003.

Under the Convention, the trade in certain chemicals that could be used, either directly or through synthesis with other compounds, as chemical weapons is restricted to Member States of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The Convention also obligates its 164 States Parties to monitor the import and export of the chemicals listed in the Convention’s Schedules of Chemicals. Monitoring and restricting transfers is a fundamental part of the Convention’s non-proliferation regime, which undertakes to prevent the re-emergence of these banned weapons.

Over 95 participants from 49 States Parties, as well as from the United Nations Environment Programme, the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and the European Chemical Manufacturers Association (CEFIC) are in attendance.

The meeting aims to enhance the National Authorities´ understanding of the impact of current practice on the Convention’s non-proliferation efforts, to enhance the relevant customs practices, and thus increase the effectiveness of the Convention’s chemical transfer regime.

In responding to the growing concerns about the risk of the acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction by non-state actors, including the threat of chemical terrorism, the United Nations´ Security Council adopted Resolution 1540, calling upon all States to join the international treaties that ban weapons of mass destruction and to ensure their non-proliferation. Resolution 1540 calls for the enactment and effective implementation of national legislation needed to prohibit, detect and prosecute any breach of the global chemical weapons ban, in particular to prevent these weapons from falling into the hands of non-state actors. Effective customs control is a crucial aspect of meeting these obligations.

In his opening remarks to the Buenos Aires meeting, OPCW Director-General, Mr Rogelio Pfirter explained the crucial role of effective legislation and controls in preventing chemical terrorism. He stressed that the success of the chemical weapons ban depends upon the diligence of the national organs that implement it. Director-General Pfirter recalled that the fulfilment of the mandate of the OPCW rests on an effective implementation of the disarmament, non proliferation, and international cooperation provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The meeting in Buenos Aires, he said, is part of the joint efforts carried out by Member States and the Technical Secretariat to make the chemical weapons global ban truly effective.