The plant science industry joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Canada's Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) today to affirm its commitment to improve regulatory harmonisation and advance work-sharing of pesticide reviews across OECD* governments.

"We welcome and support OECD's vision for international regulation of crop protection products. Focusing on dossier structures, study templates and the common assessment of key studies in order to set critical end points for risk assessments, assists in advancing regulatory science. Importantly, it does so without undermining the legitimate right of authorities to conduct national risk assessments and take risk management decisions," said Christian Verschueren, Director General, CropLife International.

He went on to say: "CropLife International believes that opportunities to use evaluations made by one regulatory body in another's jurisdiction during its assessment process help build confidence and establish dialogue between authorities."

Work-sharing activities will help reduce the time that authorities spend on dossier evaluation, providing greater consistency, transparency and predictability in regulatory decision-making. Farmers will benefit by gaining earlier access to new and safe crop protection products and industry will benefit from lower trade barriers and costs associated with the regulatory process.

CropLife International will continue to work with governments and international bodies to encourage more work-sharing and harmonisation efforts in order to meet the milestones laid down in the OECD Vision.

*OECD is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The document "A Global Approach to the Regulation of Agricultural Pesticides - A Vision for the Future" can be downloaded in PDF format at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/60/33854658.pdf 

CropLife International is the global federation representing the plant science industry. It supports a network of regional and national associations in 91 countries, and is led by companies such as BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta. CropLife International promotes the benefits of crop protection and biotechnology products, their importance to sustainable agriculture and food production, and their responsible use through stewardship activities.