Brazilian President Lula da Silva promulgated this Thursday, vetoing parts of it, a law regulating the use of pesticides in the country, which was sharply criticized by environmentalists.
The law, published in the Official Gazette of the Union and regulating the control, inspection and supervision of pesticides, aims to guarantee the protection of “the right to life, health and an ecologically balanced environment,” the Statement of the President of Brazil indicated.
One of the vetoes strips the original draft of the exclusive authority that would be given to the Department of Agriculture to evaluate and register pesticides, which would also continue to be reviewed by regulators.
Several non-governmental organizations have asked for this article to be removed. Lula da Silva also vetoed an article that would have exempted companies that make these chemical products from paying for changes to product information labels and also allowed the labels to be reused.
The Brazilian president’s veto could be overturned by Congress, which approved the original text of the law after negotiations with the so-called “rural bench” formed by parliamentarians opposed to the government.
The original text, which aimed to reduce the time it takes to register new pesticides, was heavily criticized by more than 140 civil society organizations who saw it as having a high potential to harm human and animal health and biomes.
The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) considered that the bill on the use of these products in Brazil, urgently approved by the Brazilian Senate, poses a “serious threat to the environment and the right to health.”
Roughly half of the European Union’s (EU) soybean imports in 2022 came from Brazil, amounting to more than 150 million kilograms. HRW said EU countries should express their concerns to Lula da Silva that the new law could increase the risk of hazardous pesticides in products exported from Brazil.
In a statement, the organization stressed that the European Commission must fulfill its commitment by 2020 to take new measures to ensure that hazardous chemicals banned from use in the EU are not used for export, including to Brazil.
United Nations (UN) experts have repeatedly called on the Brazilian Senate to reject the bill, warning that its implementation “would mark a colossal blow to human rights in the country.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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