Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department will introduce the Hazardous Chemicals Control (General) Regulation and the Hazardous Chemicals Control (Fees) Regulation under the Hazardous Chemicals Control Ordinance (19 of 2007) into the Legislative Council on October 10, with plans to beginning operation of the ordinance in 2008.

According to a press releases on the EPD website, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department said that the ordinance, gazetted on July 20, provided for the regulation of the import, export, manufacture and use of non-pesticide hazardous chemicals through an activity-based permit system. The EPD will be responsible for processing applications for the issue or renewal of such permits and other related matters under the ordinance.

"The hazardous chemicals regulated under the ordinance have already been covered by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade," the spokesman said.

The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the potentially harmful persistent organic pollutants. In implementing the convention, governments will take measures to restrict the production/use and/or reduction/ultimate elimination of an initial set of 12 persistent organic pollutants identified by the United Nations Environmental Programme. The Stockholm Convention became effective to the People's Republic of China, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, on November 11, 2004.

The Rotterdam Convention aims to promote shared responsibility and co-operative efforts among the contracting parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm. It has introduced a mandatory Prior Informed Consent Procedure to monitor and control the import and export of certain hazardous chemicals and disseminate national importing decisions to the contracting parties. The Rotterdam Convention reportedly became applicable to mainland China, not including the HKSAR, on June 20, 2005.

The spokesman said the Administration would request the Central People's Government to make arrangements to extend the Rotterdam Convention into the HKSAR on commencement of the ordinance in 2008.

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