DGAC Urges US to Support UN DG Committee Secretariat

DGAC recently sent a letter to the US mission to the United Nations in Geneva urging the US to support maintaining funding for the secretariat of the UN ECOSOC Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals. 

The UN is facing a serious liquidity challenge and is having to make difficult decisions about program funding. Cuts for the current budget cycle have already been implemented and another round of cuts for the next cycle is being considered, with the possibility of abolishing 28 posts across the UNECE which provides secretarial support for the ECOSOC Committee of Experts. Five of the posts are within the Transport Division, including the Chief of the Dangerous Goods Section. Such cuts, on top of the ones already in effect, have the potential to seriously impede the work of the Committee. 

DGAC, along with several other NGOs and national authorities, is encouraging the organization to find ways to find cost savings elsewhere, such as from other programs that do not provide such tangible, vital services as the Committee of Experts.