UNITED
NATIONS

1. The reports of the Scientific, Environmental Effects and Technology and Economic Assessment Panels were circulated to all the Governments in English (the language in which they were prepared) in December 1998 and January 1999. A synthesis of the 1998 scientific, environmental effects, and technology and economic assessments, contained in document UNEP/OzL.Pro./WG.1/19/3, was circulated to all Governments on 2 February 1999 and the complete synthesis of the reports of the Scientific, Environmental Effects and Technology and Economic Assessment Panels of the Montreal Protocol was circulated to all Governments in March 1999. The last two documents are also available on the Ozone Secretariat home page at: /ozone (Nairobi) and http://www.unep.ch/ozone (Geneva)

2. At their Seventh Meeting in Vienna in 1995, in decision VII/34, the Parties requested the Scientific Assessment Panel to carry out an assessment of other aspects of ozone changes, such as the impacts of aircraft emissions, and the role of ozone changes in the alteration of the global climate system. The Panel was also requested to work as appropriate with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and IPCC.

3. The report, which will be ready by the end of April, will be published by Cambridge University Press for the Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol and for the meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change in early June 1999. The Secretariat will circulate to all the Governments the summary for policy makers in May 1999. It will also be available on the Ozone Secretariat's home page at: /ozone (Nairobi) and http://www.unep.ch/ozone (Geneva).

4. The report of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel on this matter will be communicated to all Parties before the end of April 1999.

5. The Technology and Economic Assessment Panel will report to the Open-ended Working Group on progress in the work done to implement this decision.

6. The report of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel on this decision will be communicated to all Parties before the end of April 1999.

7. The following six Parties have submitted essential-use nominations for approval in 1999 by the Eleventh Meeting of the Parties: European Community, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Russian Federation and United States of America (see annex II to the present note). The Technology and Economic Assessment Panel and its Technical Options Committees will make its recommendations on these nominations in April 1999, after which they will be communicated to all Parties.

8. The report of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel on this decision will be communicated by the Secretariat to all Parties as soon as it is received from the Panel.

9. The report of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel on this decision will be communicated by the Secretariat to all Parties as soon as it is received from the Panel.

10. Following the publication of the 1998 reports of the scientific, environmental effects and technology and economic assessment of the ozone layer, the Secretariat invited the Parties, in accordance with Article 9 of the Vienna Convention and Article 2, paragraph 9, of the Montreal Protocol, to notify the Secretariat by 31 March 1999 of any adjustments or amendments to the Montreal Protocol that they wish to propose. Any proposed adjustments or amendments made on or before 31 March 1999 will be communicated to all Parties as soon as they are received.

11. By decision X/8, the Tenth Meeting of the Parties requested the legal drafting group which the Open-ended Working Group may establish to consider the options available under the Montreal Protocol to introduce controls on new ozone-depleting substances. The legal drafting group will be established during the nineteenth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group and its recommendations will be placed before the meeting of the Open-ended Working Group.

12. The report of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel on this matter will be communicated to all Parties before the end of April 1999.

13. The report of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel on other issues will be communicated to all Parties in May 1999.

14. The Secretariat has communicated this decision to all Parties to the Montreal Protocol and invited those Parties that do not manufacture for domestic use products and equipment whose continued use relies on the supply of substances listed in Annex A or Annex B and do not permit the importation of such products and equipment from any source to inform the Secretariat. To date, the Secretariat has not yet received any information from any Party on this matter.

15. This matter has been included in the agenda of this meeting because of the acknowledgment by Parties that the issue of imports and exports of products and equipment whose continued functioning relies on Annex A and Annex B substances should be further considered at the Eleventh Meeting of the Parties with a view to addressing more specifically the concerns of countries in the process of phasing out production of those products and equipment. The Working Group may wish to discuss this matter further.

16. The Secretariat has communicated this decision to all non-Article 5 Parties. The information received from them will be placed before the meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol.

17. Following decision X/18, regarding the establishment of a group of interested experts that would provide advice to the Secretariat on customs codes for ozone-depleting substances under the Harmonized System of the World Customs Organization (WCO), the Secretariat has established on the internet a discussion group on ozone-depleting substances customs codes. Experts from seven Parties have so far agreed to participate in this group (Chile, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden and the Unite Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland.

18. In response to the input from the Secretariat, the Harmonized Systems Committee of WCO, at its last session in November 1998, adopted a provisional draft recommendation regarding customs codes for ozone-depleting substances and ozone-depleting substances mixtures ("Draft recommendation on the insertion in national statistical nomenclatures of subheadings to facilitate the collection and comparison of data on the international movement of substances controlled by virtue of amendments to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer"). The final text of the recommendations will be adopted by the Harmonized System Committee at its next meeting in May 1999, taking into account any comments received during the intersession.

19. The provisional draft recommendation adopted by the Harmonized System Committee in November 1998 recommends that the Contracting Parties to the Harmonized System Convention on Customs Codes take all appropriate action to insert the additional codes (see annex I to the present note) in their statistical nomenclature for the identification of ozone-depleting substances.

20. The draft recommendation, as well as the comments on it made by some of the members of the discussion group, can be reviewed on the internet at the site: /ozone/ods-customs-codes. Those wishing to contribute to the discussion can do so through the link named "Contributions and comments" provided on that website. Users will be able to post their own contributions and comments to the site, as well as to view other users' contributions. All the comments generated by the discussion group by the end of April 1999 will be transmitted to WCO, for the consideration of the Harmonized System Committee at its meeting in May 1999, when the final text of the recommendation will be adopted. The Secretariat shall thereafter transmit the text of the recommendation to all Parties.

21. The report of the Treasurer on this matter will be communicated to all Parties as document UNEP/OzL.Pro.WG.1/19/4. The Working Group may wish to consider the report and make appropriate recommendations to the Parties.

22. The Implementation Committee is meeting on 14 June 1999. Its President will report to the Open-ended Working Group at its nineteenth meeting.

 1,1,1 - Trichloroethane (methyl chloroform)

 Chlorotrifluoromethane (CFC-13)
 Pentachlorofluoroethane (CFC-111)
 Tetrachlorodifluoroethane (CFC-112)
 Heptachlorofluoropropanes (CFC-211)
 Hexachlorodifluoropropanes (CFC-212)
 Pentachlorotrifluoropropanes (CFC-213)
 Tetrachlorotetrafluoropropanes (CFC-214)
 Trichloropentafluoropropanes (CFC-215)
 Dichlorohexafluoropropanes (CFC-216)
 Chloroheptafluoropropanes (CFC-217)

 Chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22)
 Dichlorotrifluoroethanes (HCFC-123)
 Chlorotetrafluoroethanes (HCFC-124)
 Dichlorofluoroethanes (HCFC-141 and 141b)
 Chlorodifluoroethanes (HCFC-142 and 142b)
 Dichloropentafluoropropanes (HCFC-225, 225ca and 225cb)
 Other derivatives of methane, ethane or propane halogenated only with fluorine and chlorine (HCFC-21, 31 and 133)
 Derivatives of methane, ethane or propane halogenated only with fluorine and bromine (HBFCs, Annex C, Group II substances)

 Preparations and charges for fire-extinguishers containing chlorotetrafluoroethane (HCFC-124), dichlorotrifluoroethane (HCFC-123) or chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22)

 Mixture containing chlorotetrafluoroethane (HCFC-124), chlorodifluoroethane (HCFC-142 and 142b) or chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22)
 Mixtures containing methyl bromide.