European pesticide rules might threaten American exports

CropLife America ‘represents the developers, manufacturers, formulators and distributors of plant science solutions for agriculture and pest management in the United States.’ It’s a good source of information on many topics, including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) now being negotiated between the States and the European Union.

Here’s the authorised European view of TTIP news. In an American view about the TTIP, Croplife America says that European pesticide rules threaten American exports.

Here are the European pesticide rules called 1107/2009 which, according to Croplife America, cause concern in the States. Our EU ‘barriers to trade’ threaten US exports of grains, tree nuts, fruits, soya (soybean, Glycine max) and peanuts (groundnuts, Arachis hypogaea).

Apparently this threat exists because we Europeans are too cautious and don’t really believe in science. ‘EU Regulation 1107/2009 diverges from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory approach, which uses science-based risk assessment procedures for regulating crop protection products. While scientific risk assessment is the internationally accepted practice for regulating crop protection products, the EU increasingly regulates based on hazard identification, without taking into account exposure or risk. This runs counter to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement to which the EU is signatory.’

Where will the TTIP take us? From my European viewpoint, it’s looking a little bit like insults and threats.

By the way, the members of CropLife America include BASF Crop Protection, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont Crop Protection, Monsanto and Syngenta Crop Protection. Surprised?