Noting with appreciation the work done by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel and its Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee,

Noting with appreciation that some Parties have made substantial reductions in the quantities of methyl bromide authorized, permitted or licensed for 2005 and have significantly reduced the quantities for 2006,

Noting that Parties submitting requests for methyl bromide for 2007 have supported their requests with a national management strategy,

1. For the agreed critical-use categories for 2006, set forth in table A of the annex to the present decision for each Party, to permit, subject to the conditions set forth in the present decision and decision Ex.I/4 to the extent that those conditions are applicable, the levels of production and consumption for 2006 set forth in table B of the annex to the present decision which are necessary to satisfy critical uses;
2. For the agreed critical-use categories for 2007, set forth in table C of the annex to the present decision for each Party, to permit, subject to the conditions set forth in the present decision and in decision Ex. I/4, the levels of production and consumption for 2007 set forth in table D of the annex to the present decision which are necessary to satisfy critical uses, with the understanding that additional levels of production and consumption and categories of uses may be approved by the Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in accordance with decision IX/6;
3. That a Party with a critical use exemption level in excess of permitted levels of production and consumption for critical uses is to make up any such differences between those levels by using quantities of methyl bromide from stocks that the Party has recognized to be available;
4. That Parties shall endeavour to license, permit, authorize or allocate quantities of critical-use methyl bromide as listed in tables A and C of the annex to the present decision;
5. That each Party which has an agreed critical use renews its commitment to ensure that the criteria in paragraph 1 of decision IX/6 are applied when licensing, permitting or authorizing critical use of methyl bromide and that such procedures take into account available stocks of banked or recycled methyl bromide. Each Party is requested to report on the implementation of the present paragraph to the Ozone Secretariat by 1 February for the years to which this decision applies;
6. That Parties licensing, permitting or authorizing methyl bromide that is used for 2007 critical uses shall request the use of emission minimization techniques such as virtually impermeable films, barrier film technologies, deep shank injection and/or other techniques that promote environmental protection, whenever technically and economically feasible;
7. To request Parties to endeavour to use stocks, where available, to meet any demand for methyl bromide for the purposes of research and development;
8. To request the Quarantine and Pre-shipment Task Force of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to evaluate whether soil fumigation with methyl bromide to control quarantine pests on living plant material can in practice control pests to applicable quarantine standards, to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of pest control several months after fumigation for this purpose and to provide a report in time for the twenty-sixth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group;
9. That each Party should ensure that its national management strategy for the phase-out of critical uses of methyl bromide addresses the aims specified in paragraph 3 of decision Ex.I/4;
10. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel and its Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee to report for 2005 and annually thereafter, for each agreed critical use category, the amount of methyl bromide nominated by a Party, the amount of the agreed critical use and either:
    1. The amount licensed, permitted or authorized; or
    2. The amount used; 

Annex

Critical-use exemptions for 2006 and 2007

Table A. 2006 agreed critical-use categories (metric tonnes)

Table B: 2006 permitted levels of production and consumption (metric tonnes)

*               The production and consumption of the European Community shall not exceed 311.445 metric tonnes for
the purposes of the agreed critical uses.

Table C: 2007 agreed critical-use categories (metric tonnes)

Table D: 2007 permitted levels of production and consumption (metric tonnes)