EU announces ban on pesticides

The European Commission issued EU Regulation No. 2076/2002 on November 20, 2002, which has an important impact on the use of pesticides and the trend of pesticide residue limits in agricultural products in the future, and will have a significant impact on the export of pesticides and agricultural products in China. have a greater impact.

Main Contents of the Regulations

1. List of 320 pesticides that should be discontinued before July 25, 2003, with a grace period not later than December 31, 2003.

2. The evaluation period for some pesticides was extended to December 31, 2005, and the evaluation period for the other part was extended to December 31, 2008. Until then, member states can allow the relevant pesticides to be placed on the market.

3. List of pesticides that member states can continue to use before June 30, 2007 and the corresponding conditions of use.

Impact on the export of pesticides

More than 60 kinds of pesticides in the list of 320 kinds of pesticides that should be stopped before December 31, 2003 are currently produced, sold and used in my country, and many of them are commonly used products in my country, such as three Zophos and Omethoate. In the future, products containing these pesticides may be in danger of being returned or destroyed if they are exported to the EU. Therefore, relevant production and processing enterprises that are preparing to export agricultural products to the EU should be highly vigilant and take measures in advance to avoid unnecessary losses. Pesticide export enterprises should also pay enough attention to adjust their product structure in a timely manner.

According to the data of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of my country, the annual output of pesticides in China has reached 400,000 tons, ranking second in the world. The output of pesticides ranks first in my country's pesticide production, and the annual output accounts for about 60% of the country's total pesticide output.

Impact on the export of agricultural products

After the publication of the EU Regulation No. 2076/2002, it is actually equivalent to raising the technical barriers to trade in the export of Chinese agricultural products to the EU. Since the deadline for implementation is no later than December 31, 2003, the specific impact of this regulation on China's agricultural exports cannot be quantified, but trade examples can still be found for reference.

According to the statistics of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore, at present, the main sources of imported vegetables in Singapore are China and Malaysia. In 2002, China surpassed Malaysia to become Singapore's largest source of vegetables, earning US$55.47 million in foreign exchange from exports. But China's vegetable exports are faced with the problem of pesticide residues. Except for a few months this year, the Singapore Inspection and Quarantine Department has detected pesticide residues exceeding the standard in the vegetables I exported to New Zealand. Some varieties (such as spinach) have serious pesticide residues exceeding the standard for a certain period of time, and the quantity is relatively large. According to incomplete statistics, I export an average of about 110 batches of vegetables to New Zealand each month, and about 4.7% of the batches were found to have excessive drug residues. Excessive drug residues not only cause losses to exporters, but also bring great trouble to importers.

Technical trade barriers should be given enough attention

Chinese authorities have long noticed the impact of pesticide residues on agricultural exports. In late August this year, the Department of Politics and Law of the General Administration of Customs jointly held a "Pesticide Import and Export Customs Management Training Course" at the Weihai Education and Training Base of the General Administration of Customs. The training introduced the classification of imported and exported pesticides and the basic knowledge of pesticides, my country's pesticide management system, international pesticide management system, international conventions on pesticide trade (PIC, POP's Convention), as well as my country's pesticide import and export status and development trends. .

Nevertheless, my country's agricultural product import and export business still has the drawback of a long response cycle. Wang Suzhi, an agricultural expert, pointed out that the problem of excessive pesticide residues is not a phenomenon that has only occurred in recent years, but that new indicators gradually increased by some countries and trading entities have formed higher technical trade barriers to China's agricultural exports. Before 2001, China had been the largest exporter of honey, accounting for more than 50% of the world's export share. Since 2001, the European Union and the United States have successively raised the requirements for pesticide residues in honey, resulting in a sharp drop in the export of Chinese honey, which has long been ranked No. 1 in the world, and Argentina has jumped to No. 1. If we want to restore the original share of China's honey exports, we will face a full range of industrial upgrading from honey source environment, handicraft workshops to containers. Therefore, it will take a long time for the export of agricultural products to respond to a certain regulation.