The Rotterdam Convention is a United Nations treaty on trade in certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides. Its core is the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure: for chemicals listed in its Annex III, each importing country states whether it will accept future imports, and exporting countries must respect that decision.
The Convention was adopted in 1998 and entered into force on 24 February 2004. Its secretariat is run jointly by the UN Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization. India is a party.
The main obligations
- Import responses: for each Annex III chemical, every party sends a decision to allow, refuse or allow under conditions. These responses are published.
- Export compliance: an exporting party must make sure its exporters do not ship an Annex III chemical against the importing country's response.
- Export notification: when a party has banned or severely restricted a chemical at home, it must notify the importing party before the first export, and again before the first export in each later calendar year.
- Information with exports: listed and nationally restricted chemicals must carry labels and safety data that meet the Convention's information duties, and Annex III chemicals need their specific HS codes on shipping documents.
What it means for an Indian export to you
If your product contains an Annex III chemical, check your own country's import response first. If your country has refused it, the export should not proceed. If it accepts under conditions, you must meet them.
If India has banned or restricted the chemical at home, an export notification should go from India's designated national authority to yours before the first shipment of the year. Delays in that process can hold up a shipment, so plan for it.
Responsibility sits with the authorities and the exporter, but you carry the commercial risk. A container that arrives against a refusal can be held or sent back.
The Convention does not ban chemicals and does not replace your national registration. You still need registration or a permit in your country, as described in whether you need registration before import.
How to check
Annex III and the import responses change after each Conference of the Parties, so check current lists rather than an old copy.
- Find the chemical in Annex III on the Convention's official website.
- Read your country's import response for that chemical on the same site.
- Ask your designated national authority whether a notification has been received for your product.
- Confirm with your customs broker which HS code and documents your border needs.
Related rules
The European Union applies the Convention through its own PIC Regulation, which goes further on export notifications. EU-banned pesticides and exports are covered in which agrochemicals are banned in the EU but exported from India.
Next step
We check that your product's documents and HS codes fit both countries' rules before shipment. Book a free sourcing review to plan your first export.