Withdrawal of pesticides announced

Withdrawal from the market in 2002 of 320 plant-protection products (insecticides, fungicides and herbicides), with the aim of ensuring that 'all such products in use are safe for the environment and human health' was announced by the European Commission on July 4th 2002. Most withdrawals were the result of companies declining to defend their products for economic reasons. A further 150 substances would also be withdrawn by July 2003. The cumulative effect of these measures will be to reduce by more than 60% the substances that were on the market in 1993. Comment: These new measures could have implications for minimum residue levels applied to ACP plant-product exports to the EU. The concerned departments of ACP governments will need to monitor developments closely in order to ensure that ACP producers are not enticed into using cheap products which have been withdrawn from the EU market and which could lead to problems with minimum residue levels if applied in production processes in future.Withdrawal from the market in 2002 of 320..