The OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, visited Chile on 29 and 30 September 2009 where he participated in the opening of a regional training course for customs authorities on “Technical Aspects of the Transfers Regime“.
The training course, which was organised by the OPCW and hosted by the Government of Chile in the coastal city of Viña del Mar, attracted 30 participants from 22 State Parties in Latin America and the Caribbean*.
Joining Director-General Pfirter for the opening of the course were Brig. Gen. Carlos Iván Hernández Cambiaso, the Director General of National Mobilisation and Director of Chile’s National Authority; and H.E. Mr Alfredo Labbé Villa, Director of International and Physical Security of the Chilean Ministry of External Relations.
In his opening remarks the Director-General welcomed in particular the participation of the Bahamas, whose accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in May 2009 achieved universality for the Convention in Latin America and the Caribbean. He also expressed appreciation to the Government of Spain for funding the training course. Director-General Pfirter stressed the “decisive role” that customs authorities play in compiling the data for National Authorities to make their annual declarations on imports and exports of Scheduled chemicals to the OPCW, which are vital to enforce non-proliferation. In this regard the Director-General highlighted the recent adoption by the World Customs Organization of a recommendation to include 34 “most commercialized” Scheduled chemicals in the Harmonized system – an important advance that will allow State Parties to harmonize their national nomenclatures for these chemicals and improve the precision of declarations to the OPCW.
Brig. Gen. Cambiaso noted the importance of customs authorities continuing to exchange information and best practices on the issues covered during the course to facilitate implementation of the CWC. Mr Labbé Villa commented on the success of the Convention in facilitating development of a national and international community that enables cooperation between all stakeholders to achieve the Convention’s object and purpose.
The course provided comprehensive knowledge to participants about the CWC, focusing on the provisions of the transfers regime, in order to improve the ability of States Parties to monitor transfers of Scheduled chemicals. How customs authorities handle Scheduled chemicals has a practical impact on the implementation of the CWC’s transfers regime and can play a key role in diminishing, and eventually eliminating, discrepancies between the quantities of Scheduled chemicals declared by importing and exporting States Parties in respect of these transfers.
During his visit to Chile, Director-General Pfirter also met with relevant authorities in the Ministry of External Relations and gave a public presentation at the Academia Diplomática in Santiago on “The OPCW: Achievements and Challenges”.
* Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St Kitts, Trinidad & Tobago, and Uruguay.