North American Free Trade Agreement Technical Working Group on Pesticides

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Technical Working Group (TWG) on Pesticides was established under the NAFTA provisions on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. The role of the Technical Working Group on Pesticides is to serve as a focal point for addressing pesticide issues arising in the context of liberalized trade among the NAFTA countries. In fact, NAFTA ushered in a new level of cooperation among the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States. The North American Free Trade Agreement highlights the importance of promoting trade and regional cooperation among governments. The agreement has also established various mechanisms for the governments to collaborate on issues of key importance.

Since its creation in 1996, the Technical Working Group has maintained a primary focus on facilitating cost-effective pesticide regulation and trade among the three countries. The Technical Working Group does this through harmonization and work sharing, while recognizing the environmental, ecological and human health objectives of NAFTA.

Cooperation has included a wide range of activities:

• Sharing information
• Undertaking collaborative scientific work
• Forging common data requirements
• Collaborating on risk assessment or compliance methods
• Carrying out joint reviews
• Developing common NAFTA or international standards.

Structure

The Technical Working Group is comprised of individuals from the member governments, but works closely with external stakeholders. The TWG is led by an Executive Board that provides overall leadership and policy direction. The Executive Board members are:

• Director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Office of Pesticide Program (OPP),
• Executive Director of the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), and
• General Director for Agri-foods, Aquaculture, and Fisheries in the Mexican agriculture ministry known as Secretatia de Agricultura, Ganaderia, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentacion (SAGARPA)

The TWG Secretariat provides overall coordination of the TWG's activities and consists of staff-level representatives from all three countries.

Each NAFTA partner maintains their own website.

• U.S. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs
• SAGARPA Web site (spanish only)
• Cofepris Web site

Strategies, Accomplishments and Planning

The North American Initiative for Pesticides lays the foundation for the activities of the NAFTA Technical Working Group on Pesticides.

A series of strategic plans support the TWG's goal of creating an aligned North American registration system for pesticides and products treated with pesticides. Every five years the accomplishments of the TWG are plan are assessed and new strategic plans are adopted.

The strategic plans are implemented through a series of projects on specific issues, led by senior-level scientific and regulatory managers that detail co-operative efforts and work plans on specific issues. Project sheets for active issues and completion sheets for recently completed projects are available.

Food Residues Sub-Committee

• FR09-06-0909 - Expansion, Development and Harmonization of Crop Groupings with Specified Representative Crops for Field Crop Residue Studies
• FR10-07-1009 - Chemical/Commodity/Pest-Based Strategy for Addressing Trade Irritants and Risk Reduction for Avocados

Joint Review Sub-Committee

• JR03-03-0809 - Implementation of the Globally Harmonized System of Classifications and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS)
• JR04-04-0809 - Minor Use Joint Review Procedures
• JR05-98-0909 - Coordination of Regulatory Review and Re-evaluation
• JR06-94-1008 - Co-operative Re-evaluation/Re-registration of the Heavy Duty Wood Preservatives (HDWP) Pentachlorophenol, Creosote and Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA)
• JR07-00-1005 - Joint Reviews, Work-Share Reviews and Pilot Projects for Conventional Agricultural Chemicals

Regulatory Capacity Building Sub-Committee

• RC11-05-0809 & 0909 - Modeling Pesticide Transport to Groundwater
• RC12-06-0808 - Development of Guidance for Evaluating and Calculating Degradation Kinetics in Environmental Media
• RC13-06-0808 - Guidance for Evaluating the Acceptability of Environmental Fate Studies Conducted on Foreign Soils (also referred to as the NAFTA/International Soils X-Walk)
• RC14-07-0507 - Detailed Review and Harmonization of Dermal Absorption Practices - Pilot
• RC15-95-0808 & 0809 - Harmonization of the Evaluation of Antimicrobial Pesticides
• RC17-07-0909 - Regulatory Coordination and Harmonization of Lower Risk Pest Management Strategies to AZM (Azinpos-methyl)
• RC18-07-0808 - Estimating Percent Crop Treated and Projected Percent of Crop Treated for Pesticides

Risk Reduction Sub-Committee

• RR04-99-0908 - Joint Review of Biopesticides (e.g., Microbials, Biochemicals)
• RR08-04-0909 - Increasing Adoption of Biopesticides

Often projects result in the publication of guidance documents which communicate to stakeholder's specific aspects of issues and how to access new processes that have been developed in support of a single North American market for pesticides and treated commodities.

Meetings

To maintain open communications, the NAFTA Technical Working Group meets twice a year. First, a government only meeting is held for the Executive Board and other regulatory officials. Then, a government-stakeholder meeting takes place with a broad number of participants-the Executive Board, regulatory officials, growers, industry and public interest groups. The public is consulted prior to the meetings and invited to identify key topics of interest. Meeting summaries are published to report on key outcomes of the meetings. Information on upcoming meetings is also available to the public.

Visit us often for recent announcements from the TWG, or our list of historical and archived information for older documents are available on request.

• November 2011 NAFTA TWG Meeting Summary
• November 2010 NAFTA TWG Meeting Summary
• December 2009 Biopesticide Workshop Proceedings
• Biopesticide Registration Improvement Course

Additional Information

General

• Education Outreach Program
• First NAFTA label
• NAFTA Labelled Products
• NAFTA Secretariat Representatives

NAFTA TWG Documents

• NAFTA Guidance Document on Data Requirements for Tolerances on Imported Commodities in the United States and Canada
• North American Free Trade Agreement Technical Working Group on Pesticides - Accomplishments Report for the period of 2003-2008
• North American Free Trade Agreement Technical Working Group on Pesticides Five-Year Strategy 2008-2013: Maintaining Progress
• Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships Guidance Document
• Statistical Basis of the NAFTA Method for Calculating Pesticide Maximum Residue Limits from Field Trial Data

Other Available Information

• International Pesticide Registration and Residue Limit Database
• NAFTA Guidance Document on Data Requirements for Tolerances on Imported Commodities
• NAFTA TWG Factsheet: Public Requests for Pesticide Information