ACPA Differs with Producers on Canada Chemicals

July 30, 2001

Jay Vroom, president of the American Crop Protection Association, told a congressional subcommittee last week his organization supports greater trade access and regulatory harmonization for crop technology products between the United States and Canada. However, Vroom told members of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce and Tourism, that a bill introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan, which would allow states and others to register Canadian products, while well-intentioned, would exacerbate some of the problems it seeks to address.

Montana wheat farmer Henry Zell, a Montana Farmers Union member, flatly favored the bill to allow states to register pesticides marketed in Canada for use within that state when the pesticide marketed to Canadian producers is identical to one already registered in the United States.

"The bill creates an unnecessary system of state registrations," Vroom said. "We think it is critical for EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency) with its expertise and experience to continue to control the process and make registration decisions to ensure the safe regulation of pesticides and crop biotech products. It would be counterproductive to delegate these responsibilities to the states."

Further, Vroom noted, EPA must protect confidential formula information. "The bill would allow confidential formulas to be bounced among the 50 states. This potential threat would force companies to evaluate U.S. registrations and may, in some cases, force U.S. market de-selection to protect formulas," he said.

Vroom also told subcommittee members that registrants should not be liable for products they do not control in the marketplace. "Senate bill 532 appears to exempt persons and states as registrants, leaving manufacturers liable for products to be used in the U.S. that the companies did not agree to market in the U.S. It is unfair to impose that burden on the registrant and may result in voluntary cancellations of some products to avoid unnecessary exposure to lawsuits, particularly with minor-use crops," he added.

In his testimony, Vroom noted that ACPA met recently with the North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture and agreed to work with those state regulators, members of Congress and EPA to examine regulatory and legislative alternatives to find reasonable remedies to these harmonization challenges.

"The stakes are high for the registrants as well as the farmers who depend on crop protection tools. If legislation is necessary, ACPA is prepared to help draft alternatives that will address the problem without unnecessarily creating unwieldy state programs or resulting in the loss of valuable products," he said.

Zell, who lives 30 miles south of the Canadian border in Shelby, MT, said because of U.S. pesticide registration requirements, his costs are $26,396 more than those of his Canadian counterparts. "There are numerous reasons why the trade agreements that opened our border with Canada have hurt U.S. farmers," Zell told the subcommittee. "A key issue is the price difference between pesticides purchased by American farmers and those same products purchased by our Canadian counterparts.

"We do not want to compromise the food safety, environmental concerns, farmer safety or the oversight provided by the Environmental Protection Agency," Zell said. "We do, however, need relief from a practice that allows pesticide manufacturers to charge us an artificially higher price for inputs than those charged to our competitors in a highly competitive international market."

Since the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, grain farmers in northern states have been frustrated by a number of trade issues. Among these are pesticide labeling regulations that ban the sale and use of certain pesticides in the U.S. while a similar or identical product can be purchased in Canada at a much reduced price.

Proponents argue this cost disadvantage is one of the significant inequities faced by farmers in the U.S. when trying to compete in the same grain markets. The legislation, whose chief sponsors are Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Conrad Burns (R-MT) amends the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act to allow a state, farm supply company or farm organization to serve as the registrant for pesticides approved for use in Canada that are identical or substantially similar to ones approved in the U.S. under a different label.

"We allow food and commodities to pass freely across the border-ironically, even items that may have been produced with pesticides that are illegal to use in the U.S.," Zell noted. "We should allow the same for production inputs when they do not compromise safety or the environment. This pesticide harmonization legislation helps improve fair market conditions and competition between the U.S. and Canada."