Brazilian Congress Overturns the President’s Vetoes: Ministry of Agriculture Will Have Exclusive Competence for Pesticide Registration

The Ministry of Agriculture will have exclusive competence for the registration of pesticides, environmental control products, and related products. The decision was made by the Congress this Thursday (9), by rejecting part of the veto (VET 47/2023) placed by the Presidency of the Republic on the new Pesticides Law (Law 14785, of 2023).

For the Executive, this and other similar provisions of the new law extinguish the tripartite model of registration and control of pesticides, adopted in the country since 1989 and based on the interaction between the areas of agriculture, environment and health.

Another item that will come into effect again, with the veto overturned, provides that requests for registration of products based on an active ingredient under reevaluation may be granted by the federal agency responsible for the agricultural sector until its reevaluation has been completed. The government claims that this device offends the principle of precaution, putting at risk the rights to life, health and to an ecologically balanced environment.

The Bill that gave rise to the law (Bill 1,459/2022) was approved by the Senate at the end of November of 2023. The Executive vetoed 17 items, but Congress overturned the veto on eight of them and postponed the analysis of the rest.

Source: Agência Senado