Pre-export notifications

The Board is pleased to note that the number of parties that have already invoked article 12, paragraph 10 (a), of the 1988 Convention, continues to grow. Since the report of the Board for 2003 on the implementation of article 12 was issued, the Government of Egypt has requested to receive preexport notifications for all substances in Table I and acetone, and the request of the European Commission on behalf of the States members of the European Union for pre-export notifications for all substances in Table I of 19 May 2000 has been extended to the 10 new States upon their accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004. 

As at 1 November 2004, 40 countries and two territories had requested such pre-export notifications pursuant to article 12, paragraph 10 (a), of the 1988 Convention. In addition, the European Commission has invoked that article on behalf of all States members of the European Union, bringing the total number of Governments that have made use of that provision (including the 25 States members of the European Union), to 67. Of those, the Governments of... 

The Board notes with appreciation that the Governments of many of the major exporting countries and trans-shipment points routinely provide pre-export notifications for exports of substances in Table I, irrespective of whether they have been requested formally under article 12, paragraph 10 (a), and a number of Governments are already in a position to do so for substances in Table II. 

The pre-export notification system has been applied with particular success in Operation Purple and Operation Topaz. The Board notes the initiative, introduced under Project Prism, for a limited-time operation to utilize the pre-export notification system for monitoring shipments of pharmaceutical preparations containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine that are imported into countries in the Americas. 

Major manufacturing and trading countries now routinely supply pre-export notifications for all shipments of precursors of amphetamine-type stimulants in international trade. The Board has noted that, because of the effective controls and monitoring mechanisms that now exist for the licit trade in the raw materials, traffickers in certain regions are increasingly turning to pharmaceutical preparations as a source of the required precursors, particularly ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. 

The Board welcomes the fact that, in accordance with the standard operating procedures of Project Prism, the competent authorities of China are now sending pre-export notifications for safrole in the form of sassafras oil. In 2004, those notifications resulted in the suspension of a shipment of over 1.5 tons of sassafras oil to Canada, which was subsequently released upon completion of the legal requirements. 

The possibility of diversions being facilitated in such ways raises two important issues for competent authorities to address. Firstly, when a pre-export notification appears with the name of a well-known company with a licit requirement for the substance, the notification should not be responded to before actually checking with the company concerned whether it had actually placed the order. Secondly, when such a diversion attempt is detected, full investigations should be launched by the authorities in both the importing and exporting countries to determine how and from whom the order was received. 

Governments that have requested pre-export notifications pursuant to article 12, paragraph 10 (a), of the 1988 Convention... 

Governments that have requested pre-export notifications under the above-mentioned provisions are listed in the table below in alphabetical order, followed by the substance (or substances) to which the provisions should apply and the date of notification of the request transmitted by the Secretary-General to Governments. 

Governments may wish to note the possibility of requesting that a pre-export notification for all substances in Table II of the 1988 Convention be sent as well. 

Notifying government Substances to which pre-export notification requirement applies Date of communication to Governments by the Secretary-General... 

Not yet notified by the Secretary-General as, in a subsequent communication, the Government of Belarus requested the Secretary-General to suspend such notification until a national mechanism to receive and process pre-export notifications is established. 

The analysis presented below provides an overview of the major trends in the diversion of and trafficking in precursor chemicals, as identified in the period 2006-2007. It is based on data on seizures and on licit trade furnished by Governments on form D for 2006 and in pre-export notifications. The analysis also draws on information from individual cases of diversion, attempted diversion, stopped or suspended shipments and information on illicit drug... 

Between 1 November 2006 and 31 October 2007, the competent authorities of 24 exporting countries and territories provided 1,331 pre-export notifications to 114 importing countries and territories, involving a total of 28,888 tons of potassium permanganate. 

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