The Government of Peru and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) organised a technical meeting of National Authorities in Latin America and The Caribbean on the practical aspects of the transfer regime. The meeting was held in Lima, Peru on 28 and 29 August 2006 and was attended by 68 representatives from eighteen OPCW Member States, including Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Representatives of the European Council of Chemical Industry, the World Customs Organisation, the European Union and an expert from the Network of Legal Experts, contributed to the deliberations.
The Deputy Foreign Minister of Peru, H.E. Ambassador Gonzalo Gutiérrez, and H.E. José Antonio Arróspide, Permanent Representative of Peru to the OPCW and Chairman of the Conference of the States Parties, addressed the opening ceremony.
In his opening remarks, Vice-Minister Gutierrez, who had participated in the Preparatory Commission for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the OPCW, emphasized Peru’s long standing commitment to general and complete disarmament and the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. He underlined that the Peruvian National Authority, Consejo Nacional para la Prohibición de las Armas Químicas (CONAPAQ) was already established in 1996, a year prior to the Convention’s entry into force. Mr Gutiérrez underscored the progress made by Peru in drafting additional national legislation to be submitted as soon as possible to the Peruvian Congress in order to fully comply with Article VII of the CWC.
Ambassador Arróspide drew attention to the decisions taken by the Conference of States Parties on Article VII implementation, in particular on actions and timelines for the complete and effective national implementation of the Convention. He asserted that one of the most important ways in which States Parties comply with the ban on chemical weapons is to exactly declare information on the production, consumption and international transfers of Schedule 2 and Schedule 3 chemical substances, as defined by the Convention. In this regard, he said, customs authorities bore a special responsibility in the implementation of the chemical transfer regime.
This meeting focused on custom procedures which are crucial in implementing the CWC at the national level. This event provided the participants with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the CWC’s requirements for submitting chemical import and expert declarations. They received practical assistance in producing declarations of aggregate national data for the production, processing, consumption, import, and export of Schedule 2 chemicals, and for the import and export of Schedule 3 chemicals. The participants also discussed means to facilitate the early identification on the territory of State Parties Schedule 2 and 3 chemical importers and exporters so as to enhance the accuracy of aggregate national data declarations.
PR50 / 2006