. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/EU/69 
22 October 2012  
 (12-5729) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  EUROPEAN UNION  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [X], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Chemicals, medicinal 
products 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Proposal for a 
Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending C ouncil Regulation (EC) 
No 111/2005 laying down rules for the monitoring of trade between the Community and third 
countries in drug precursors (COM(2012) 521) (15 page s, in English, French and Spanish).     
6. Description of content:  The main aim of the proposal is to extend the powers of Member 
States' competent authorities to stop and seiz e medicinal products containing ephedrine or 
pseudoephedrine, when there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that these products are 
intended for the illicit manufacture of drugs , and to introduce the use of pre-export 
notification for these products.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Introducing controls over medicinal products co ntaining ephedrine or pseudoephedrine in 
order to prevent their diversion for the illic it manufacture of methamphetamines. Ephedrine 
and pseudoephedrine are drug precursors; they can easily be extracted from the medicinal 
products containing them. While ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are controlled under Council 
Regulation (EC) No 111/2005, the medicinal pr oducts containing them are not controlled.  G/TBT/N/EU/69 
Page 2  
 
  8. Relevant documents:   SDW/2012/0268 final - Impact Assessment accompanying COM 
(2012)521: 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0268:FIN:EN:PDF  
"http://eurlex.europa.eu/Result.do?T1=V 7&T2=2012&T3=268&Rech Type=RECH_naturel&
Submit=Search " 
SWD/2012/0267 final - Executive Summary of the Impact Assessment accompanying COM 
(2012)521: 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0267:FIN:EN:PDF  
"http://eurlex.europa.eu/Result.do?T1=V 7&T2=2012&T3=267&Rech Type=RECH_naturel&
Submit=Search " 
Council Regulation (EC) No 111/2005 laying down ru les for the monitoring of trade between 
the Community and third count ries in drug precursors: 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2005:022:0001:0010:EN:PDF  
Other information on drug precursors control in the European Union: 
"http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/customs/ customs_controls/drugs_precursors/index_en.
htm" 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    December 2013 
January 2014  
10. Final date for comments:  90 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [X], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addres ses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
The text is available on the EU-TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/    
and at 
"http://eurlex.europa.eu/Result.do?T1=V 5&T2=2012&T3=521&Rech Type=RECH_naturel&
Submit=Search " 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2012:0521:FIN:EN:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2012:0521:FIN:FR:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2012:0521:FIN:ES:PDF  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2012/tbt/EEC/12_4081_00_e.pdf