Among the vetoed sections are those that gave the Ministry of Agriculture the power to assess risks or changes in records
The president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) sanctioned the law that modifies the rules for the approval and marketing of pesticides, products used in the agricultural sector to protect and increase production. The Chief Executive, however, vetoed 14 sections. Among them, some that gave the Ministry of Agriculture the power to assess risks or approve changes to product registrations.
The documents they were published in this Thursday's edition (Dec 28, 2023) of Official Diary of the Union. Here are the full text of the law (PDF – 2 MB) and of vetoes (PDF – 409 kB). The vetoes will still be analyzed by Congress.
The bill was approved by the Senate at the end of November. The senator Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES), rapporteur of the proposal, sought to build a middle ground between the agribusiness bench in Congress and the desires of more environmentalist sectors of the Lula government.
The approved text establishes that pesticides and similar products can only be researched, produced, exported, imported, marketed and used if they are approved by a federal body.
The initiative sets a deadline of 2 years for the approval of new products. The request for approval of new products will be made through the Unified Information, Petition and Electronic Assessment System, which, according to the senators, will facilitate the processing and access of the bodies responsible for analysis to scientific studies that prove the safety of use.
Lula vetoed the section that determined that only the Ministry of Agriculture could technically evaluate changes in pesticide records relating to the production process, technical product specifications and changes in raw materials or additives. The president also did not approve the part that said that the ministry would be responsible for cases of reassessment of the risks of pesticides.
If approved, the measures would remove powers from Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) and Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency).
Excerpts were also vetoed:
- authorized the Ministry of Agriculture and Ibama to grant requests for products that used active ingredients under reanalysis before the procedure was completed;
- they exempted companies from having to permanently place their own name on the packaging and the warning that the product container could not be reused;
- created the Evaluation and Registration Fee for new products.
Lula justified most of the vetoes by saying that the sections were unconstitutional, went against the public interest and placed “the rights to life, health and an ecologically balanced environment are at risk”.
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