From vision to implementation: Pesticide standards and international trade

Join this debate as experts explore how EU pesticide Maximum Residue Limits shape food safety, environmental protection, and international agri‑food trade, focusing on regulatory divergence, competitiveness concerns, and the implications of the Commission’s planned impact assessment on hazardous pesticide residues in imports.

Effective food safety and plant health standards are central to protecting human health, the environment, and the sustainability of agri-food systems, while enabling international trade. Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for pesticides in food are essential for consumer protection and are intended to facilitate trade between countries. However, the stringency of MRLs set in the EU is criticized by producers in third countries for increasing compliance burdens, leading to border rejections and restricting market access—particularly affecting exporters in developing and least-developed countries, including small and medium-sized enterprises. On the other hand, European stakeholders call for even stricter MRLs, in particular for active substances prohibited in the EU.

In the Vision for Agriculture and Food, the Commission announced that it will establish a principle that “the most hazardous pesticides banned in the EU for health and environmental reasons are not allowed back to the EU through imported products”. To advance on this, the Commission has launched in November 2025 a study to prepare an Impact Assessment that will consider the impacts on the EU’s competitive position and the international implications and, if appropriate, propose amendments to the applicable legal framework. The divergent regulation of pesticide residues in the EU and other major economies is becoming an increasingly important and contested dimension of global agri-food trade.