Pesticide Regulations Part-2 : Role of Government in Prohibition or Permission of Pesticides

Pesticide Regulations - Part-2

Role and Obligation of Government in Prohibition or Permission of Pesticides

By:

Vijay SARDANA

Advocate, Delhi High Court

Techno-legal Expert on Agribusiness & Consumer Products Industries

&

Priyanka Sardana, Advocate, Supreme Court of India

& 

Aastha Sardana, Researcher on Legal Matters

We suggest that, please also read the earlier parts of the Pesticide Regulation Series for better understanding of the arguments used in this article.

When any country wants to become a big player on the world stage, one cannot ignore the expectations of the global community. COVID-19 outbreak has reinforced the need for the countries to become more sensitive towards humanity. Countries are expected to become transparent in their decision-making process and engage with the world community to ensure the collective welfare of all.

The global community expects governments must behave responsibly not just to meet the expectation of the local population within their jurisdiction but also to consider the impact of their actions and decisions on the global the community where they want to expand their trade ties. COVID-19 outbreak will force new obligations on the governments.

In global trade and also under WTO regime health and safety is a major concern. It is a well-known fact that with the spread of trade the health risk also spreads. Therefore a dedicated Agreement on Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary was negotiated to protect human, plant and animal life and health.

With the growth of international trade in agriculture-based products and agro-chemicals with various applications also became a point of policy debates and trade negotiations. 

International Conventions on Pesticides:

To address these concerns, several international instruments dealing directly or indirectly with pesticides or pesticide management have come into force. The most important of these are:

• The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (Rotterdam Convention), 
• The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (Stockholm Convention), 
• The Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention), 
• The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol)
• The International Labour Organisation Convention No. 184 on Safety and Health in Agriculture (ILO Convention 184). 
• Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)
• Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), which is intended to standardize and harmonize the classification and labelling of chemicals.

Whether a country is a signatory or not, these conversions will impact everyone.

Pesticide Regulation and Management: 

Civil society expects from the Governments around the world including the Government of India to ensure safe and healthy food. Based on the global experiences and collated information, inter-governmental bodies have created a detailed Code of Conduct for the policymakers to ensure safe and healthy options for the consumers by creating regulatory requirements for agro-chemicals.

1. Introduce Regulations: It is advised that Governments should introduce the necessary policy and legislation for the regulation of pesticides, their marketing and use throughout their life cycle, and make provisions for its effective coordination and enforcement, including the establishment of appropriate educational, advisory, extension and health-care services.

2. Use Global references for consensus: It is advised that Governments may create suitable regulatory regime by using the FAO and WHO guidelines, wherever applicable, and use the provisions of relevant legally binding instruments. Please note that FAO and WHO are intergovernmental bodies and reference points in case of disputes under the WTO trade regime.

3. Factor local agro-climatic factors & pest incidences: In so doing, governments should take full account of factors such as local needs, social and economic conditions, levels of literacy, climatic conditions, availability and affordability of appropriate pesticide application and personal protective equipment.

4. Prohibit Child labour in agrochemicals application: International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture also advises that the government should introduce legislation to prevent the use of pesticides by and sale of pesticides to children.  The use of pesticides by children in a work situation should be included in National Hazardous Work Lists for children under ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worse Forms of Child Labour in countries which have ratified it.

5. Regulate pesticide businesses: Pesticides are toxic chemicals and it is expected that the government will establish regulatory schemes such as licenses or permits for pest control operators. To ensure proper monitoring of the manufacturing and trade of hazardous chemicals, it is expected that the government should establish pesticide registration schemes and infrastructures under which each pesticide product is registered before it can be made available for specified use.

6. Avoid Non-tariff barriers: Agriculture is an important component of economic development. Cooperation between various trading partner is expected in the trade issues. While framing legislations regulations  should  act as facilitation in trade based on the cooperation with other governments in, the establishment of harmonized (regionally or by groups of countries) pesticide registration requirements, procedures and evaluation criteria taking into account appropriate, internationally agreed technical guidelines and standards, and where possible incorporate these standards into national or regional legislation; 

7. Establish a review mechanism: Allow for re-evaluation and establish a re-registration procedure to ensure the regular review of pesticides, thus ensuring that prompt and effective measures can be taken if new information or data on the performance or risks indicate that regulatory action is needed; export, manufacture, formulation, quality and quantity of pesticides; improve regulations concerning collecting and recording data on import, export, manufacture, formulation, quality and quantity of pesticides; 

8. Promote Safe Applications: To save farmers from accidents only permit standardized and certified pesticide application equipment and personal protective equipment. Permit marketing of equipment under established standards only. 

9. Regulate and monitor pesticide residues in food in accordance notably with the recommendations of the Codex Alimentarius. In the absence of Codex standards, national or regional standards should be used. This should be done in a manner that is consistent with WTO requirements and will not lead to technical barriers in the trade or non-tariff barriers.

10. Ensure transparency to gain the confidence of stakeholders: The only way to gain confidence and the support of all stakeholders is making an effective regulatory regime is by way of transparency. The conflict of interests should be avoided in all committee meetings and decision-making process.

Therefore, the role of the government is very critical in controlling and managing hazardous and toxic chemicals to save people and the environment.

Important: 

The Prohibition Order of 27 pesticides issued by the Government of India should be tested on the above-mentioned parameters. This will be the right approach and all stakeholders can be convinced. 

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Disclaimer: This article is for general information. For any specific techno-legal discussion, you may contact the authors.