This article critically evaluates the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade. The author first discusses the environmental and human health effects of hazardous chemicals and pesticides that initially led to adoption of the convention. Because many of the chemical initially targeted by the convention are either no longer produced or no longer exported, she focuses her discussion on the persistent effects of pesticides, which continue to see widespread use. After exploring the health and environmental impact of these products, the author provides an overview as well of the trade in hazardous chemicals between developed and developing countries which is the object of the convention. She highlights the role that basic economic and infrastructure imbalances play in creating the possibilities for trade in these substances between the developed, mostly northern, countries and the developing, mostly southern, countries. She also examines the role played by the global trading system and various international organizations in facilitating such trade. Having established the context in which the trade occurs, the author then assesses the Rotterdam Convention and concludes it is fundamentally flawed because it fails to incorporate essential elements required by any successful prior informed consent (PIC) system. In particular she argues it fails to recognize that enhancing the capacity of developing countries to perform certain key functions is essential to a viable PIC system, including for example the ability analyze and test chemical data independently. While the author proposes suggestions for improvement of the PIC system, she suggests that such a system may ultimately not be the best solutions for the problems faced.