Theme 1: Existing standards and standard-setting bodies

Dear Colleagues,

I do not know anything about the newly adopted Rotterdam Rules and am keen to know if these would be relevant to implement Article 18.3.

See http://www.rotterdamrules2009.com/cms/index.php;
http://www.mcgill.ca/maritimelaw/rotterdamrules/ and http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N08/478/11/PDF/N0847811.pdf?OpenElement

From: gunasutra@yahoo.in

Dear Guna Sutra,
Usually, goods are carried internationally under a contract of carriage between the consignor and the carrier. These contracts of carriage may be established under the provisions of various international conventions, mainly the Varsaw convention for carriage by air, the Hague-Visby rules or the Hamburg rules for carriage by sea, CMR for carriage by road in Europe, CIM (COTIF) for carriage by rail in central and western Europe, Middle East and North Africa, SMGS for carriage by rail in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and certain other Asia countries. A contract of carriage is usually evidenced by a transport document which contains the information in accordance with the relevant convention. The information required under transport of dangerous goods regulations is usually included in or attached to this transport document. The Rotterdam rules are intended to apply to transport operations which are effected wholly or partly by sea, i.e. in case of multimodal transport they would supersede the provisions provisions of the current conventions governing separately the contract of carriage on the different legs of the journey (sea and inland). Nevertheless this convention is very recent and has not yet come into force.
Best regards

Olivier Kervella

Dear Olivier Kervella,

Thank you for this insight. Yes, the Rotterdam Rules are not yet into force but should that secretariat not be included here for developing standards under Article 18.3?

Along with others that I suggested earlier (see https://bch.cbd.int/onlineconferences/theme1_art18.shtml?threadid=1138), its inclusion will also ensure that implementation of those Rules will take Cartagena Protocol provisions into consideration.

Sorry for being so ignorant about the practicalities of transportation regulations and thank you very much for your prompt replies that are useful to better understand the interlinkages, needs and modalities of various treaties and regulations regarding an integrated approach to implementing Article 18.3 provisions (handling, transport, packaging and identification of living modified organisms).

From: gunasutra@yahoo.in