UK considers using Brexit ‘freedom’ to allow pesticides banned in EU on food
-American agricultural lobby groups had criticised some of the import bans

英國考慮利用英國脫歐的“自由”，允許在食品上使用歐盟禁止的殺蟲劑
——美國農業游說團體批評了一些進口禁令


(The chemicals are banned from domestic production but can still be imported on food.)

（這些化學物質被禁止用在國內生產上，但仍可用于進口食品。）
新聞：

The government is considering using its new Brexit regulatory freedom to allow pesticides banned in the EU on food imported to the UK.

政府正考慮利用其新的英國脫歐的監管自由，允許英國進口的食品使用歐盟禁止使用的農藥。

Brussels announced it was banning 10 pesticides on imported fruit and veg in February last year and the UK was at the time widely expected in to follow suit. But over a year later the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) says no decision has yet been made on whether Britain will follow the EU or continue to permit the chemicals on food.

布魯塞爾去年2月宣布，將禁止進口水果和蔬菜使用10種殺蟲劑，當時人們普遍預計英國也會效仿。但一年多過去了，英國環境、食品和農村事務部表示，英國還沒有決定是追隨歐盟，還是繼續允許在食品中使用化學物質。

All the pesticides have not been allowed for use by domestic farmers in either the UK or EU for some years, but were still allowed for imports from outside the bloc subject to “maximum residue levels” checked by border staff.

英國或歐盟的國內農民多年來都不允許使用這些農藥，但從歐盟以外的國家進口的農藥仍然可以使用，但邊境工作人員檢查的“最大殘留水平”仍受到限制。
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But last year Brussels regulation 2021/155 cut the maximum residue levels (MRLs) for all the chemicals to the lowest possible level allowed under EU law – effectively banning their use on food destined for the continent.

但去年，布魯塞爾的2021/155號法規將所有化學物質的最大殘留水平降至歐盟法律允許的最低水平，從而有效地禁止在運往歐洲大陸的食品中使用這些化學物質。

The change was announced by the European Commission in February 2021 and took effect in September last year, but the UK has not yet decided whether to follow suit for most of the chemicals.

歐盟委員會于2021年2月宣布了這一改變，并于去年9月生效，但英國尚未決定是否對大多數化學品采取同樣的措施。

The chemicals in question are carbon tetrachloride, chlorothalonil, chlorpropham, ethoprophos, fenamidone, methiocarb, propiconazole and pymetrozine. Two further chemicals, dimethoate and omethoate, were also banned by the regulation and have also since been banned on food imported to the UK.

所涉及的化學品是四氯化碳、百菌清、氯丙烷、乙草磷、蟲胺酮、甲氧威、丙環唑和吡蟲嗪。另外兩種化學物質，樂果和氧樂果，也被該法規禁止，并已在進口到英國的食品中被禁止。

The eight chemicals that are still permitted on imports to the UK but not EU were banned for a variety of reasons: chlorothalonil, a fungicide, is considered potentially carcinogenic and is judged to be a possible groundwater contaminant.

英國仍允許進口但歐盟不允許進口的八種化學物質被禁止，原因有很多：殺菌劑百菌清被認為是潛在的致癌物質，并被判定為可能的地下水污染物。

Propiconazole, another fungicide used by American rice farmers, is considered “toxic to reproduction”, meaning it is classed as potentially dangerous to babies in the womb. Meanwhile chlorpropham, a chemical used to prevent potato sprouting by American farmers, is banned for domestic use in the EU and UK due to toxicity concerns.

美國稻農使用的另一種殺菌劑丙環唑被認為“對生殖有害”，這意味著它被列為對子宮內的嬰兒有潛在危險。與此同時，由于毒性問題，歐盟和英國禁止在國內使用美國農民用來防止馬鈴薯發芽的化學物質氯丙烷。

The widespread use of the chemicals by US farmers and the foot-dragging by the UK government has raised eyebrows among campaigners, who are suspicious that the UK may be concerned banning the pesticides could jeopardise a future trade agreement with the US and other countries with lax standards.

美國農民廣泛使用農藥和英國政府的拖延，令活動人士感到驚訝，他們懷疑英國可能擔心，禁止農藥可能會危及未來與美國和其他標準寬松的國家達成的貿易協議。

The US rice industry described the ban on propiconazole as “frustrating” in April last year, while the country’s potato industry has described steps to restrict chlorpropham as “disappointing”.

美國大米行業稱，去年4月對丙環唑的禁令“令人沮喪”，而美國土豆行業則稱，限制氯苯胺靈的措施“令人失望”。

The Defra press office declined to provide a quote for this article but confirmed that no decision had yet been taken on the eight chemicals that were as yet not banned for import to the UK. The department did not give a timescale but said decisions would be made in “due course” and independently of the EU.

英國環境食品和鄉村事務部新聞辦公室拒絕為本文提供引用，但證實尚未就尚未禁止進口到英國的八種化學品作出決定。事務部沒有給出時間表，但表示將在“適當時候”做出決定，而且將獨立于歐盟。

Defra highlighted that it had taken action equivalent to the EU import ban on two of the chemicals, dimoethoate and omethoate, and said that decisions about which pesticides to permit on food were based on robust scientific assessments.

英國環境食品和鄉村事務部強調，它已經采取了相當于歐盟對其中兩種化學品——二甲氧樂果和樂果——實施進口禁令的行動，并表示，允許在食品中使用哪種殺蟲劑的決定是基于強有力的科學評估。

Friends of the Earth campaigner Kierra Box told The Independent: “We’ve known for years that these pesticides pose health risks, which is why the UK already has some restrictions in place to limit residues of these chemicals on imported food.

“地球之友”活動人士科拉·博克斯告訴《獨立報》：“我們多年來就知道這些農藥會對健康造成危害，這就是為什么英國已經出臺了一些限制進口食品中這些化學物質殘留的措施。”

“However, the EU has already tightened the rules, so why hasn’t the UK followed suit?

“然而，歐盟已經收緊了規則，那么為什么英國沒有效仿呢？”
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“Any suggestion that prospective trade deals with countries that commonly use these pesticides may have influenced delays to these reassessments would be deeply concerning.

“任何關于與普遍使用這些殺蟲劑的國家可能達成的貿易協定可能影響到重新評估工作推遲的說法，都將令人深感擔憂。

“We mustn’t trade away health and environment safeguards for the sake of a few pounds or use the UK’s newfound ‘regulatory freedom’ to trash standards that protect people and planet, rather than raise them.”

“我們不能為了幾英鎊的利益而放棄健康和環境保護措施，也不能利用英國新獲得的‘監管自由’來廢棄那些保護人類和地球的標準，而不是提高這些標準。”

An investigation by Greenpeace's Unearthed unit published in February found that British companies had shipped more than 10,000 tonnes of banned pesticides overseas in 2020, including propiconazole.

綠色和平組織下屬機構“發掘”了今年2月發布的一項調查發現，英國公司在2020年向海外出口了逾1萬噸禁用農藥，其中包括丙環唑。

Greenpeace UK’s policy director Dr Doug Parr described the practice of exporting chemicals banned in the UK to be used overseas on food to be imported back to Britain as a “toxic boomerang”.

綠色和平組織英國政策主任道格·帕爾博士稱，將英國禁止的化學物質出口到海外用于食品，再進口回英國的做法是“有毒的回旋鏢”。

“Our European neighbours have realised that flogging abroad harmful pesticides that are banned at home doesn’t make sense,” he told The Independent.

他在接受《獨立報》采訪時表示：“我們的歐洲鄰國已經意識到，在國外銷售國內禁止的有害農藥是沒有道理的。”

“It makes even less sense if traces of those chemicals come back to the sender and on our dinner plate via imported food like a toxic boomerang.

“如果這些化學物質通過進口食品回到發送者和我們的餐盤上——就像有毒的回旋鏢一樣，那就更沒有道理了。”

“And yet the UK government continues to allow companies to export thousands of tonnes of highly toxic, banned pesticides while showing little appetite for restricting the amount of harmful chemicals in the food we import.

“然而，英國政府繼續允許企業出口數千噸劇毒、被禁用的農藥，同時卻對限制我們進口的食品中有害化學物質的數量幾乎不感興趣。”

“Ministers should not let our environmental standards fall behind those in force across the Channel. Britain should be leading out in front by banning this toxic trade and promoting a healthier food system for people and nature.”

“大臣們不應該讓我們的環境標準落后于英吉利海峽對岸的現行標準。英國應該帶頭禁止這種有毒的貿易，并為人類和自然促進一個更健康的食品系統。”