Barriers remain for North American alignment in crop protection

Despite growing trade in produce between Canada, the United States, and Mexico, regulatory barriers remain towards achieving an aligned system of crop protection registration and reviews in North America.

The establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 created the largest free trading region in the world. This trading environment gave consumers wider access to food and increased market size for domestic growers considering exports. The extent of this trade relationship wouldn’t be nearly as prolific without the regulatory cooperation promoted between these countries over the past three decades. 

An important component of this cooperation for crop protection has been the creation of the North American Trilateral Technical Working Group (NAT TWG) on Pesticides established in 1997. Launched under the former NAFTA provisions on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and continued under CUSMA, the role of the NAT TWG on Pesticides is to address regulatory issues arising in the context of liberalized trade among the three countries.

There have been some solid achievements in regulatory alignment under the NAT TWG including joint registration reviews, NAFTA-wide product labels, and progress towards alignment of Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs). These efforts have been commended for increasing the speed of the review process and aligned outcomes, benefiting regulators, registrants, and growers. The public has also indirectly benefited through growers gaining access to new crop protection technology sooner.

The 2024 edition of the NAT TWG was held mid-October with Mexico hosting the meeting in Mexico City. Regulator representatives were present from all three countries, including the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), EPA (U.S.), SENASICA (Mexico), registrants, and CropLife Canada along with grower groups from all three countries.

Despite the significant progress made towards alignment of approaches in the first decade of the 2000s, further alignment has effectively ground to a halt since the pandemic. While the regulators have indicated they remain interested in greater collaboration, domestic policies as well as litigation in the Canada, United States, and Mexico are making further progress more difficult. The regulators’ own divergent views on topics also gets in the way at times.

Starting in August 2021, the Canadian Minister of Health announced a pause on increases to Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) along with the statement that “while the current regulations provide robust protection of human health and the environment, some of its provisions now warrant review to ensure the process meets the expectations of Canadians in the areas of transparency and sustainability.”