USDA Grant for Global Pesticide Regulation and MRL Alignment

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) aims to align pesticide registration systems and maximum residue limit (MRL) standard setting across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and to do so based on U.S. regulatory systems and international standard setting bodies. Alignment of registration systems and trade standards is a complex process, involving multiple regulatory agencies and technical staff across regions and continents, and requires a multifaceted approach involving experts from a broad array of subject matters. Aligned trade standards support exports of U.S. agricultural products to foreign markets.

Access to new, low-risk pesticide products continues to be challenging for farmers around the world. Even when the products are available, farmers in all countries face trade barriers when residue standards differ, or do not exist, in export markets. Efforts to build regulatory capacity and encourage the adoption of import tolerances and Codex MRLs, when appropriate, can help reduce these trade barriers and ensure critical pest control tools are available to farmers.

Objectives

This program aims to support both bilateral and regional approaches to strengthen and align pesticide regulatory systems with those of the United States and international standard setting bodies by engaging in four categories, including 1) Registrations, 2) Standards (i.e., MRLs), 3) Compliance, and 4) Research. To accomplish this, this project will need to develop a cadre of technical and regulatory experts to conduct strategy development, create action plans, lead workshops, discussions and other engagements with foreign partners, provide education and extension in regulatory sciences to foreign agricultural specialists, conduct pesticide-focused research, and support the creation of domestic and international residue standards. Page 2 of 16

Experts will assist in identifying areas where pesticide registration systems and standards can be better aligned, prioritize those areas, develop short and long-term work timelines, identify and secure experts to lead implementation of themes within the broader strategy, and support a series of inter-related workshops, extension training, and research to achieve identified goals. The program will cover an anticipated 3-year period with activities occurring throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America, among others. Experts may be external to the partner organization and may require subcontracting individuals or entities on part of the partner organization. The selected partner will need to work closely with other implementing organizations, U.S. and foreign regulatory authorities, U.S.-based pesticide research programs, and U.S. and foreign agricultural associations and exporters to coordinate efforts and provide the technical expertise to related activities. Core areas of engagement will include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Regional Alignment

Regional Alignment of Registration Systems and Standards Adoption

MRLs

MRL Adoption Pathways

Import Tolerances

Residue Data for MRLs

Registration

Registration Formats

Data Requirements

Risk Assessment – Basic

Risk Assessment – Advanced

Biopesticide Registration

Crop Group/Efficacy

Efficacy Data Recognition

Crop Grouping

Monitoring/Testing

Sampling/Monitoring (domestic and imports)

Diagnostics (labs)

Communications

Public/NGO pesticide communications and public engagement

International Organizations

WTO-SPS Committee Engagement

 Joint Statements and Declarations

 Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues

 APEC Initiatives

Technical Experts

Technical experts in these above areas will develop implementation teams to carry out recommended action plans, based on a common, unified strategy led by this Principal Investigator (PI) in consultation with FAS and other partners. It is anticipated that 8-10 technical experts will be required to implement the program. Implementation of the action plan can be conducted directly by the recipient, by leveraged funds managed by other coordinating partner organizations, or by sub-awards to this program, as deemed necessary. In short, this recipient will be expected to play a leadership role to secure internal and external talent, identify and leverage other programs, and build a coalition to achieve the program’s goals as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Regulations, Standards, and Compliance

This program will work with foreign regulators to build regulatory capacity within national and regional pesticide registration systems with the aim to align these systems as closely as possible with those of the United States. This will include topics covering registration formats, data requirements, risk assessment, MRL adoption pathways, establishment of crop group systems, promoting mutual recognition of efficacy and other related data, and domestic monitoring systems.

Communications

This program will concurrently work to provide pesticide communication strategies and tools to foreign regulators and other foreign stakeholders (e.g., agricultural associations, exporters, private sector), with the aim to strengthen abilities to defend science-based regulatory decisions and ensure confidence in the safety of food products. This can be delivered in the form of training sessions, printed materials, or other tools.

Research

The Inter-Regional Research Project #4 (IR-4) in the United States conducts pesticide residue research to help register agricultural pesticide products on specialty crop and to establish U.S. pesticide tolerances (or MRLs). For the past 10 years, IR-4 has worked with the USDA and foreign counterparts to collaboratively generate pesticide residue data to establish Codex MRLs. Recently a new Minor Use Foundation was established to assist IR-4 in this mission to collaborate with foreign researchers. This project will look at ways to enhance the work of both IR-4 and the Minor Use Foundation by expanding residue collaborations and bolstering the number of MRLs within Codex, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and foreign national systems when appropriate.