Overview

Final regulatory action (FRA) means an action taken by a Party to ban or severely restrict a chemical whereby that Party does not require any subsequent regulatory action on the chemical.

In order to accomplish the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure for hazardous chemicals, each Party should undertake a sound scientific evaluation of available and updated scientific information of the chemical in question as the basis for the final regulatory action.

The Conference of the Parties, recognizing the importance of adequate infrastructure and needs of developing countries, requested the Secretariat to collect scientific and technical information and make it available in a user-friendly format that may assist parties in preparing notifications of final regulatory action.

A Final Regulatory Action Evaluation Toolkit (FRAE Toolkit) is developed by the Secretariat in consultation with the expert of the Chemical Review Committee. The purpose of the toolkit is to enhance and encourage the consideration of sound scientific information by Designated National Authorities (DNAs), especially from developing countries, in making regulatory decisions on hazardous chemicals.

A chemical is considered banned under the Convention, when all uses of it within one or more categories of pesticides or industrial chemicals have been prohibited, refused for first-time use or withdrawn by the Industry in order to protect human health or the environment. “Severely restricted chemical” means a chemical of which virtually all uses within one or more categories have been prohibited, but for which certain specific uses remain allowed.