The European Union and the United States are in dispute over a pesticide considered harmful to bees. The European Commission’s decision to restrict the use of sulfoxaflor to indoor use only was not appreciated by the Americans. The pesticide had been specially produced by the agrochemical multinational Corteva as an alternative to neonicotinoids, a specific type of pesticide associated with the decline of pollinating insects. Approved in the EU in 2015, after just seven years on the market Sulfoxaflor is soon expected to be restricted to indoor use only, i.e. in permanent greenhouses. The Commission declared in early April its intention to pursue this after the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) deemed the information regarding its impact insufficient to ensure bee safety.
“Efsa’s scientific conclusions show that the external use of sulfoxaflor can be harmful to bumblebees and solitary bees. Action must now be taken to restrict its use indoors only,” commented Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. Despite the fact that the ban did not receive a majority of votes from the member states in the Standing Committee on Pesticides, the Commission promised to adopt the regulation this spring anyway. According to the reconstructions of Euractiv’s colleagues, the US sent a letter of complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which is required to approve the restriction. In the letter, according to reconstructions, Washington argues that the widespread use of the chemical in the US would prevent the export of the food it is used on and the resulting goods. According to a Commission official, the proposed regulation does not change the applicable maximum residue levels (MRLs), i.e. the traces that pesticides leave in treated products and are legally tolerated on food or feed, through proper use of the pesticides, such that they do not pose a danger to human health.
The fuck we do.
I don’t think the US has a lot of jurisdiction in the EU.
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The European Union and the United States are in dispute over a pesticide considered harmful to bees. The European Commission’s decision to restrict the use of sulfoxaflor to indoor use only was not appreciated by the Americans. The pesticide had been specially produced by the agrochemical multinational Corteva as an alternative to neonicotinoids, a specific type of pesticide associated with the decline of pollinating insects. Approved in the EU in 2015, after just seven years on the market Sulfoxaflor is soon expected to be restricted to indoor use only, i.e. in permanent greenhouses. The Commission declared in early April its intention to pursue this after the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) deemed the information regarding its impact insufficient to ensure bee safety.
“Efsa’s scientific conclusions show that the external use of sulfoxaflor can be harmful to bumblebees and solitary bees. Action must now be taken to restrict its use indoors only,” commented Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. Despite the fact that the ban did not receive a majority of votes from the member states in the Standing Committee on Pesticides, the Commission promised to adopt the regulation this spring anyway. According to the reconstructions of Euractiv’s colleagues, the US sent a letter of complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which is required to approve the restriction. In the letter, according to reconstructions, Washington argues that the widespread use of the chemical in the US would prevent the export of the food it is used on and the resulting goods. According to a Commission official, the proposed regulation does not change the applicable maximum residue levels (MRLs), i.e. the traces that pesticides leave in treated products and are legally tolerated on food or feed, through proper use of the pesticides, such that they do not pose a danger to human health.
The fuck we do.
I don’t think the US has a lot of jurisdiction in the EU.
Save the bees