EU-USA Sign First Agreement On Chemical Drug Precursors

An agreement on drug precursors - defined as the chemical substancesindispensable for manufacturing drugs - has been initialled between the European Union and the US government.

It will now be possible for both the EU and USA, which are jointly responsible for a majority of the world trade in chemicals, to share sensitive information in this area and pool their resources in stopping the diversion of chemical precursors into the illicit production of narcotic and psychotropic drugs.

For the European Commission, Mario Monti said this was the first EU-US agreement in the drug sector. It is envisaged that because of its importance, it will form a centerpiece of the EU-USA summit in Amsterdam towards the end of May.