Editorial & Technical Group of the Sub-Committee on the Carriage of Cargoes and Containers

The Editorial & Technical Group (E&T Group) is an expert standing subsidiary body of the Sub-Committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers.  Participation in the E&T Group’s is open to experts in the transport by sea of dangerous goods in packaged form and of solid cargoes carried in bulk, which are drawn from IMO Member States and from interested intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in consultative status. 

The E&T Group is tasked with the review of all technical and editorial issues related to draft texts for new or amended provisions proposed by IMO Member States for inclusion in the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code and the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code.

The E&T Group meets twice each year and alternates its expertise every other year: one year it prepares updated or amended provisions of the IMDG Code, while the following year it does the same for the IMSBC Code.

In regard to the updating work on the IMDG Code, the E&T Group harmonizes any new or amended provisions with the latest revisions to the United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, but without compromising any special safety requirements related to the unique characteristics of sea transport.  The UN Recommendations come under the purview of a dedicated UN Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and provide a basic regulatory framework for worldwide harmonization in an age of rapid technical advances and ever-increasing diversity of new substances and materials in the modern, multi-modal transport system.

The sheer volume of the E&T Group’s work is truly daunting, but is essential in order to ensure that IMO’s carriage requirements for dangerous goods and solid bulk cargoes keep pace with the latest scientific evaluation and technical knowledge of the safety and pollution hazards associated with these types of cargoes.  In the same vein, it is vitally important that the IMDG and IMSBC Codes’ provisions take full account of current operational practices (both shipboard and shore-based) that have a bearing on the safe and environmentally sound transport by sea of these types of cargoes.

For further information on the work of the E&T Group, please send an email to etgroup@imo.org.