Developing international guidelines for the management of trade in chemicals

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Agenda 21 recommends that industry should develop, in cooperation with governments and relevant international organizations and appropriate agencies of the UN system, an internationally agreed code of principles for the management of trade in chemicals, recognizing in particular the responsibility for making available information on potential risks and environmentally sound disposal practices if those chemicals become wastes.

UNEP has been requested by its governing council to provide an international forum for consultation with private-sector parties on the preparation of a code of ethics on the international trade in chemicals. In 1992-1993 UNEP convened meetings with industry and other private-sector parties, international organizations and government experts. A final text for a code of ethics was developed in 1994.