Newsletter
CONTROLS ON TRADE IN CHEMICALS
The second phase of controls under the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) began on 29 April 2000. From that date on, states which are parties to the convention are prohib-ited from transferring to non-party states the 14 chemicals listed in CWC Schedule 2, which in-clude three toxic chemicals and eleven precursor chemicals. The ROC is not a party to the CWC, and will therefore no longer be able to import Schedule 2 chemicals from the 132 CWC sig-natories worldwide. This will impact the supply of raw materials to the ROC's plastics, pharma-ceuticals, cosmetics, textiles, dyestuffs and ag-rochemicals industries. Due to technical limita-tions and the small size of the domestic market, it would not be economic to produce these chemicals in Taiwan. If the ROC is unable to accede to the CWC in the future, industries which use such chemicals may be forced to re-locate overseas.