UK considers using Brexit ‘freedom’ to allow pesticides banned in EU on food
-American agricultural lobby groups had criticised some of the import bans

英国考虑利用英国脱欧的“自由”，允许在食品上使用欧盟禁止的杀虫剂
——美国农业游说团体批评了一些进口禁令


(The chemicals are banned from domestic production but can still be imported on food.)

（这些化学物质被禁止用在国内生产上，但仍可用于进口食品。）
新闻：

The government is considering using its new Brexit regulatory freedom to allow pesticides banned in the EU on food imported to the UK.

政府正考虑利用其新的英国脱欧的监管自由，允许英国进口的食品使用欧盟禁止使用的农药。

Brussels announced it was banning 10 pesticides on imported fruit and veg in February last year and the UK was at the time widely expected in to follow suit. But over a year later the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) says no decision has yet been made on whether Britain will follow the EU or continue to permit the chemicals on food.

布鲁塞尔去年2月宣布，将禁止进口水果和蔬菜使用10种杀虫剂，当时人们普遍预计英国也会效仿。但一年多过去了，英国环境、食品和农村事务部表示，英国还没有决定是追随欧盟，还是继续允许在食品中使用化学物质。

All the pesticides have not been allowed for use by domestic farmers in either the UK or EU for some years, but were still allowed for imports from outside the bloc subject to “maximum residue levels” checked by border staff.

英国或欧盟的国内农民多年来都不允许使用这些农药，但从欧盟以外的国家进口的农药仍然可以使用，但边境工作人员检查的“最大残留水平”仍受到限制。
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But last year Brussels regulation 2021/155 cut the maximum residue levels (MRLs) for all the chemicals to the lowest possible level allowed under EU law – effectively banning their use on food destined for the continent.

但去年，布鲁塞尔的2021/155号法规将所有化学物质的最大残留水平降至欧盟法律允许的最低水平，从而有效地禁止在运往欧洲大陆的食品中使用这些化学物质。

The change was announced by the European Commission in February 2021 and took effect in September last year, but the UK has not yet decided whether to follow suit for most of the chemicals.

欧盟委员会于2021年2月宣布了这一改变，并于去年9月生效，但英国尚未决定是否对大多数化学品采取同样的措施。

The chemicals in question are carbon tetrachloride, chlorothalonil, chlorpropham, ethoprophos, fenamidone, methiocarb, propiconazole and pymetrozine. Two further chemicals, dimethoate and omethoate, were also banned by the regulation and have also since been banned on food imported to the UK.

所涉及的化学品是四氯化碳、百菌清、氯丙烷、乙草磷、虫胺酮、甲氧威、丙环唑和吡虫嗪。另外两种化学物质，乐果和氧乐果，也被该法规禁止，并已在进口到英国的食品中被禁止。

The eight chemicals that are still permitted on imports to the UK but not EU were banned for a variety of reasons: chlorothalonil, a fungicide, is considered potentially carcinogenic and is judged to be a possible groundwater contaminant.

英国仍允许进口但欧盟不允许进口的八种化学物质被禁止，原因有很多：杀菌剂百菌清被认为是潜在的致癌物质，并被判定为可能的地下水污染物。

Propiconazole, another fungicide used by American rice farmers, is considered “toxic to reproduction”, meaning it is classed as potentially dangerous to babies in the womb. Meanwhile chlorpropham, a chemical used to prevent potato sprouting by American farmers, is banned for domestic use in the EU and UK due to toxicity concerns.

美国稻农使用的另一种杀菌剂丙环唑被认为“对生殖有害”，这意味着它被列为对子宫内的婴儿有潜在危险。与此同时，由于毒性问题，欧盟和英国禁止在国内使用美国农民用来防止马铃薯发芽的化学物质氯丙烷。

The widespread use of the chemicals by US farmers and the foot-dragging by the UK government has raised eyebrows among campaigners, who are suspicious that the UK may be concerned banning the pesticides could jeopardise a future trade agreement with the US and other countries with lax standards.

美国农民广泛使用农药和英国政府的拖延，令活动人士感到惊讶，他们怀疑英国可能担心，禁止农药可能会危及未来与美国和其他标准宽松的国家达成的贸易协议。

The US rice industry described the ban on propiconazole as “frustrating” in April last year, while the country’s potato industry has described steps to restrict chlorpropham as “disappointing”.

美国大米行业称，去年4月对丙环唑的禁令“令人沮丧”，而美国土豆行业则称，限制氯苯胺灵的措施“令人失望”。

The Defra press office declined to provide a quote for this article but confirmed that no decision had yet been taken on the eight chemicals that were as yet not banned for import to the UK. The department did not give a timescale but said decisions would be made in “due course” and independently of the EU.

英国环境食品和乡村事务部新闻办公室拒绝为本文提供引用，但证实尚未就尚未禁止进口到英国的八种化学品作出决定。事务部没有给出时间表，但表示将在“适当时候”做出决定，而且将独立于欧盟。

Defra highlighted that it had taken action equivalent to the EU import ban on two of the chemicals, dimoethoate and omethoate, and said that decisions about which pesticides to permit on food were based on robust scientific assessments.

英国环境食品和乡村事务部强调，它已经采取了相当于欧盟对其中两种化学品——二甲氧乐果和乐果——实施进口禁令的行动，并表示，允许在食品中使用哪种杀虫剂的决定是基于强有力的科学评估。

Friends of the Earth campaigner Kierra Box told The Independent: “We’ve known for years that these pesticides pose health risks, which is why the UK already has some restrictions in place to limit residues of these chemicals on imported food.

“地球之友”活动人士科拉·博克斯告诉《独立报》：“我们多年来就知道这些农药会对健康造成危害，这就是为什么英国已经出台了一些限制进口食品中这些化学物质残留的措施。”

“However, the EU has already tightened the rules, so why hasn’t the UK followed suit?

“然而，欧盟已经收紧了规则，那么为什么英国没有效仿呢？”
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“Any suggestion that prospective trade deals with countries that commonly use these pesticides may have influenced delays to these reassessments would be deeply concerning.

“任何关于与普遍使用这些杀虫剂的国家可能达成的贸易协定可能影响到重新评估工作推迟的说法，都将令人深感担忧。

“We mustn’t trade away health and environment safeguards for the sake of a few pounds or use the UK’s newfound ‘regulatory freedom’ to trash standards that protect people and planet, rather than raise them.”

“我们不能为了几英镑的利益而放弃健康和环境保护措施，也不能利用英国新获得的‘监管自由’来废弃那些保护人类和地球的标准，而不是提高这些标准。”

An investigation by Greenpeace's Unearthed unit published in February found that British companies had shipped more than 10,000 tonnes of banned pesticides overseas in 2020, including propiconazole.

绿色和平组织下属机构“发掘”了今年2月发布的一项调查发现，英国公司在2020年向海外出口了逾1万吨禁用农药，其中包括丙环唑。

Greenpeace UK’s policy director Dr Doug Parr described the practice of exporting chemicals banned in the UK to be used overseas on food to be imported back to Britain as a “toxic boomerang”.

绿色和平组织英国政策主任道格·帕尔博士称，将英国禁止的化学物质出口到海外用于食品，再进口回英国的做法是“有毒的回旋镖”。

“Our European neighbours have realised that flogging abroad harmful pesticides that are banned at home doesn’t make sense,” he told The Independent.

他在接受《独立报》采访时表示：“我们的欧洲邻国已经意识到，在国外销售国内禁止的有害农药是没有道理的。”

“It makes even less sense if traces of those chemicals come back to the sender and on our dinner plate via imported food like a toxic boomerang.

“如果这些化学物质通过进口食品回到发送者和我们的餐盘上——就像有毒的回旋镖一样，那就更没有道理了。”

“And yet the UK government continues to allow companies to export thousands of tonnes of highly toxic, banned pesticides while showing little appetite for restricting the amount of harmful chemicals in the food we import.

“然而，英国政府继续允许企业出口数千吨剧毒、被禁用的农药，同时却对限制我们进口的食品中有害化学物质的数量几乎不感兴趣。”

“Ministers should not let our environmental standards fall behind those in force across the Channel. Britain should be leading out in front by banning this toxic trade and promoting a healthier food system for people and nature.”

“大臣们不应该让我们的环境标准落后于英吉利海峡对岸的现行标准。英国应该带头禁止这种有毒的贸易，并为人类和自然促进一个更健康的食品系统。”