PIC Regulation

The Rotterdam Convention creates legally binding obligations for the implementation of the Prior Informed Consent procedure (PIC procedure), that permit formally obtain and make known the decisions of importing countries as to whether they wish to receive future shipments of a certain chemical and for ensuring compliance with these decisions by exporting countries.

The objective of the Rotterdam Convention is to promote shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health, including workers and consumers' health, and the environment from potential harm and contribute to environmentally sound use of these chemicals.

Additional information on the Rotterdam Convention can be found on the PIC website,  including all PIC Circulars issued by the Secretariat.

Chemicals that are intended for export shall be subject to the measures on packaging and labeling established in, or pursuant to, Directive 67/548/EEC, Directive 1999/45/EC, Directive 91/414/EEC and Directive 98/8/EC, or any other specific Community legislation so that it wont prejudice to any specific requirements of the importing Party or other country taking into account relevant international standards.

Where appropriate, the expiry date and the production date of chemicals shall be indicated on the label, and if necessary such expiry dates shall be given for different climate zones.

A safety data sheet in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and establishing a European Chemicals Agency shall accompany chemicals when exported.

The information on the label and on the safety data sheet shall as far as practicable is given in the official languages, or in one or more of the principal languages, of the country of destination or of the area of intended use.

ePIC was built to replace the previous submission system, EDEXIM (the European Database for Export and Import of dangerous chemicals).

The main objective of ePIC is to serve as a platform to fulfil obligations and to provide the user with information on the implementation of the PIC Regulation within the European Union related to:

• Export notification for chemicals listed in Annex I of the Regulation.
• Import decisions taken by countries on request for chemicals listed in Part 2 or 3 of Annex I of the Regulation.
• Import decisions made by countries participating in the international PIC procedure under the Convention for chemicals listed in Part 3 of Annex I of the Regulation.