calls The food Minister: food shall be allowed to be imported, even if they contain dangerous, in the EU, under the said pesticides.

it Represents the interests of consumers and farmers in the EU? Food Minister Julia Klöckner photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa

BERLIN taz | Federal Ministry of agriculture, Julia Klöckner is struggling to ensure that particularly dangerous, in the EU-foodstuffs pesticides in imports allowed to remain. The Ministry of the CDU-politician, the taz said, it is a sit down "for a risk-based assessment of residues".

The EU Commission wanted to ban, however, originally also in imports of arable poisons automatically, which cause cancer, the genetic damage, reproductive or hormone system disturbing. Because these dangers are so serious that the chemicals may not be sprayed according to pesticide regulation in the EU. Klöckner, however, want to allow such imports, if a scientific opinion determines a threshold at which adverse health effects "practically can be excluded".

critics fear that the authorities not only can you feed with the pesticides, but also dangerous foods on the market, if you have to decide under pressure from the chemical lobby on each import tolerance individually. "Julia Klöckner betrays the interests of the consumers," criticized the Green party member of Parliament and agricultural expert Harald Ebner. "It is particularly dangerous pesticides that are banned in Europe, and with good reason, may not reach over the imported food back on our plates."

The German farmers ' Association warns of unfair competition between farmers in the EU and in third countries. Because farmers in America have an advantage, if you can produce with pesticides that are not allowed to use their competitors in Europe. "We expect that, for imported Goods the same criteria with regard to plant protection products to be applied values, application, and Residue, such as for Goods from the EU," urged Bernhard Krüsken, General Secretary of the Association.

Klöckner argued with the Agreement of the world trade organization (WTO) on sanitary and phytosanitary measures. "The introduction of a non-risk-weighted residue-based most significant WTO law, allocation of risk held, would be" she wrote to the Ministry.

in fact, the Convention requires that WTO countries the risks for health" are based your restrictions of pesticide imports "on an assessment [ ... ]. But that does not necessarily mean that the EU needs to check once whether a chemical in an imported food is too dangerous, although it has banned the substance on their fields because of a scientific evaluation. "It is not proven that the repeal of the import tolerances for these pesticides violated the WTO rules," said Nina Holland, Researcher, Corporate Europe Observatory.

displays it in a on Monday published a Report that pesticide corporations such as Bayer/Monsanto, BASF and Syngenta in dozens of interviews and Writing pressure on the EU exerted by the Commission to prevent a ban on imports, with the arable toxins. Accordingly, the United States and Canada jumped to the company. In addition to Germany, also a further five EU had a meeting in September 2018 in Brussels-members, such as Austria, the Netherlands and Poland are used for imports of such pesticides to allow.

All of this has led to the Commission of 2018, is partly caved, and a risk assessment in the individual case have planned. Holland refers to acts of the EU Commission.

In December 2019, has changed the leadership of the Commission. And like Ursula von der Leyen is positioned? The authority replied that the taz only: "The establishment of MRLs for pesticides, and the exclusion criteria is a complex issue, which the Commission is thinking at the moment." Bayer and its competitors still have opportunities to assert themselves.