The Minamata Convention addresses sources of supply and trade in mercury, laying down measures on primary mercury mining, stocks and sources, excess mercury from the decommissioning of chlor-alkali plants as well as on mercury export and import. Export and import measures under the Minamata Convention are one of the main instruments to control the supply and trade of mercury. The Convention requires Parties to take measures to control the trade of mercury with other Parties as well as with non-Parties.
The COP adopted decision MC-6/1 inviting Parties that reported on experiences and challenges faced in the implementation of paragraph 3 of Article 3, on primary mercury mining in their national reports under Article 21 to provide further information to the Secretariat with a view to its being shared with the Implementation and Compliance Committee for further consideration. Furthermore, Parties, including those benefiting from ongoing projects of the GEF, are encouraged to continue to share information with the Secretariat about experiences in preventing and combating illegal trade in mercury, including with respect to the use of forms related to Article 3 on mercury trade.
In decision MC-6/1 the COP also requested the Secretariat to develop, in collaboration with parties and organizations with expertise on illegal trade, and subject to the availability of resources, a report presenting strategies for addressing the supply and trade of mercury for parties not in compliance with Article 3. In preparing the report, the Secretariat shall: (a) Utilize information collected from parties and other relevant sources; (b) Take into account information on strategies to prevent the diversion of mercury from foreign and domestic sources for use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining and processing, as contained in national action plans on artisanal and small-scale gold mining submitted by parties in accordance with paragraph 3 (b) of article 7; (c) Invite contributions from Parties, the Implementation and Compliance Committee and other stakeholders.
For the purpose of preparing the report, which will be developed thanks to the financial support of the European Union, the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury is inviting Parties and interested stakeholders to submit information on:
experiences (in particular from Parties benefiting from ongoing projects of the Global Environmental Facility) in preventing and combating illegal trade in mercury, including with respect to the use of forms related to Article 3 on mercury trade;
successes and lessons learnt for addressing the supply and trade of mercury for Parties not in compliance with Article 3 to be utilized in the development of a report on the matter to be considered by COP-7.
All information should be sent to mea-minamatasecretariat [at] un.org with the subject “Call for Information on Supply Sources and Trade” by 30 October 2026. Please be informed that the respective announcement of the call has been published on the Minamata Convention website. Submissions will be posted on the Convention’s website.
The Secretariat was further requested to continue to provide advice and conduct awareness-raising and technical assistance activities to strengthen the capacity of parties to fulfil their trade-related obligations under Article 3.
In decision MC-6/1, the COP also requested the Implementation and Compliance Committee to: (a) assess the reasons that parties have provided as indications that they face challenges in implementing trade-related provisions under article 3 and consider whether recommendations that go beyond the actions already taken by the Conference of the Parties at its fifth and sixth meetings might be beneficial for improving implementation; (b) cooperate, as needed, with compliance bodies of other multilateral environmental agreement.
COP-6 invited the Secretariat to develop guidance for the consistent use of Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System codes related to mercury-containing goods, specifically mercury, mercury compounds and mercury waste.
In response to decision MC-6/1, the Secretariat is strengthening collaboration with organizations with expertise on illegal trade, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Customs Organization, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the member organizations of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals, the secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, and relevant global and regional enforcement networks to assist parties in preventing and combating illegal trade in mercury.
Parties, other governments and stakeholders in position to do so are invited to provide funding and in-kind contribution to support the Secretariat in the implementation of decision MC-6/1.
Intersessional work and Submissions for COP-6
Mercury supply sources and trade
Decision MC-5/2
The Secretariat is carrying out the following activities to implement the above-mentioned decision in 2024-2025:
a) Updates to guidance on trade in primary mined mercury and stocks and sources
The Conference of the Parties, in decision MC-5/2, requested the Secretariat, subject to the availability of resources, to:
Draft an update to the existing guidance on stocks adopted in decision MC-1/2 to include types of action that could be taken to fulfil the continuing obligation to endeavour to identify stocks and sources as per paragraph 5 (a) of Article 3 of the Convention (para. 5 (a)); and
Develop guidance to assist parties in identifying, managing and reducing mercury trade from primary mercury mining (para. 5 (e)).
The Secretariat has developed, with the generous financial contributions from Canada and Spain, the above-mentioned documents, both in the form of draft updates to the existing guidance on Article 3 adopted by the Conference of the Parties in decision MC-1/2:
Parties are invited to review the draft updates (only the underlined text) and submit comments, if any, by using the following commenting forms, and emailing it to the Secretariat (mea-minamatasecretariat [at] un.org) by 24 July 2025:
Please do not hesitate to contact Richard Gutierrez at richard.gutierrez [at] un.org (on guidance on stocks and sources) and Eisaku Toda at eisaku.toda [at] un.org (for guidance on trade in primary mined mercury), should you need any further information on this matter.
b) Information on experiences and challenges in the implementation of Art. 3
In decision MC-5/2 on mercury supply sources and trade, COP-5 invited Parties to submit to the Secretariat, by 25 March 2025, information on experiences and challenges faced in the implementation of Article 3 as well as information on activities undertaken in relation to the Bali Declaration on combating illegal trade in mercury to be compiled by the Secretariat for consideration by COP-6.
c) Study of the global supply, production, trade and use of mercury compounds (decision MC-5/3)
COP-5 adopted decision MC-5/3 requesting the Secretariat to: (a) initiate a study of the global supply, production, trade and use of mercury compounds; and (b) present the report to the Conference of the Parties at its sixth meeting for consideration.
In response to the above-mentioned request and thanks to the generous contribution of Canada and Spain, the Secretariat developed this draft study. Parties and stakeholders are invited to submit comments and input using this form and email it to the Secretariat (mea-minamatasecretariat [at] un.org) by Wednesday, 5 March 2025.
Intersessional work and Submissions for COP-4
Customs codes
COP3 requested the Secretariat to continue its work in collaboration with the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership Mercury in Products Partnership area and involving relevant experts to;
(a) Draft a guidance document that includes:
(i) For the mercury-added products listed in Annex A to the Convention, a list of possible customs nomenclature codes of more than six digits that could be used by Parties;
(ii) For mercury-added products not listed in Annex A to the Convention, a compilation of examples provided by national experts of customs nomenclature codes of more than six digits currently in use by Parties; and
(iii) Examples of good practice where the use of customs nomenclature codes at the national level has been supplemented by the use of other control tools for the purpose of implementing trade provisions, such as those found in Article 4 to the Convention.
(b) Provide an assessment of whether the subsequent development of six-digit harmonized codes would be a useful complement to the outcome of the work undertaken under (a) (i) above for the mercury-added products listed in Annex A or under (a) (ii) above for mercury-added products not listed in Annex A. The assessment shall, where possible, include several examples of the use of such codes for both listed and unlisted mercury-added products, taking into account experience concerning such codes under other international environmental conventions.
Parties, non-parties and other stakeholders including relevant organisations were invited to identify experts familiar with the use of national customs codes to participate in the open-ended process by 29 February 2020. Two nomination have been received.
Identified experts were invited to submit information relevant for the work related to (a) (i)-(iii) above by 31 March 2020. The following submissions have been received from nominated experts. The Secretariat will work with the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership - Mercury in Products Partnership area to collect more information from parties and stakeholders.
A draft guidance document on the use of customs codes under the Minamata Convention has been developed as described above in response to Decision MC-3/3 on Customs codes and posted below on 18 June 2021.
Parties and other stakeholders were invited to submit comments on the draft, including any additional information on point (a) (i)-(iii) above, by 19 July 2021 to: mea-minamatasecretariat [at] un.org (mea-minamatasecretariat[at]un[dot]org). The guidance document is to be submitted as a COP-4 document.
Intersessional work and Submissions for COP-3
Mercury trade
Harmonized system codes
COP-2 in its decision MC-2/9, requested the Secretariat in collaboration with the Global Mercury Partnership and in consultation with relevant organisations, to suggest approaches for customs codes to identify and distinish non-mercury-added and mercury-added products listed in annex A to the Convention, including approaches for their possible harmonization.
A draft report was coordinated by the Secretariat in consultation with the Products Partnership, and it was sent to the partners of the Products Partnership on 31 May 2019 for final input and review. The draft report was posted here on 7 June 2019. Parties, signatories and other stakeholders are invited to submit comments by 1 August 2019, including information on the current use of the customs code in relation to mercury-added products.
