Health Canada
Symbol of the Government of Canada
Consumer Product Safety

Response to Comments Received on WTO Notification (PMRL2013-10)

Comment Received

The Australian Government submitted a comment requesting that Canada consider revising its proposed 0.1 ppm MRL for propiconazole in/ on tree nuts to 0.2 ppm, the level currently enforced in Australia, to promote the free trade of agricultural products and minimize trade irritants.

Response from the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA)

Canada's PMRA establishes MRLs on imported commodities based upon supporting residue trials conducted in accordance with the label directions in the exporting country.

The supervised crop field trials, which formed the basis of the proposed MRL of 0.1 ppm for propiconazole in/on imported tree nuts, were conducted according to the United States approved label rate (1 kg propiconazole/hectare/season). When sampled according to the labelled preharvest interval (60 days for almonds and 14 days for pecans), the highest residues of propiconazole were 0.09 ppm in almond nutmeat and did not exceed the 0.1 ppm limit of quantitation of the analytical method. Therefore, the recommended MRL of 0.1 ppm to cover residues of propiconazole in/on tree nuts was deemed appropriate and there is no scientific justification to increase the proposed MRL. In turn, the MRL for propiconazole in/on tree nuts is established at 0.1 ppm as proposed in PMRL2013-10.