Priorities for the European Union’s international policy on chemicals and health-environment

Remarks by Marcos Orellana, Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights at the High Level Segment of the EU French Presidency Ministerial Conference of Chemicals

12 May 2022

Thank you, and good morning. Excellencies.

The European Union’s international policy on chemicals should prioritize putting an end to the production and export of hazardous pesticides that are banned for use in the Union. Pesticides that are hazardous to people and the environment in Europe are hazardous everywhere else.

I am encouraged to see that the EU’s Chemical Strategy for Sustainability pledges to ban the export of prohibited pesticides. But the pledge is yet to materialize.  

These exports are a form of discrimination that involves odious double standards. The human body is the same the world over.

The hazardous pesticides that Europe exports eventually circle back to Europe. No country or region can fence off its boundaries to toxic pollution.  

At times it is argued that a ban is likely to be ineffective, as production will be displaced elsewhere and exposure will continue. However, that is a reason to phase out highly hazardous pesticides globally, not a reason to condone legalized exploitation of farmers and local communities in developing countries.  

It is also argued that importing countries are sovereign to decide what not to import. This is plain sophism, because often, importing countries are plagued by corruption and weak governance, and invariably they lack adequate capacities to address chemical risks.  

The reality is that exports of prohibited pesticides result in harm to the life and health of people in the weakest link of the food supply chain: poor farmers and children in the fields of the Global South.

The European Union’s leadership is indispensable to put an end to this situation. Thank you for your attention.

The reality is that exports of prohibited pesticides result in harm to the life and health of people in the weakest link of the food supply chain

Marcos Orellana