Any weakening of UK pesticide standards via trade deals poses risks not just to human health but also to the environment. Trade partners such as the US and India have a history of challenging the EU’s relatively precautionary approach to which pesticides are allowed for use, and the UK is already coming under similar pressure. Almost all non-EU countries (including Australia, the US and India) allow the use of pesticides which the UK prohibits because they are highly toxic to bees and pollinators, including neonicotinoids which are notorious for driving massive declines in bee populations. Most countries also authorise pesticides known to contaminate groundwater and harm aquatic ecosystems, such as the herbicides atrazine and diuron which are banned for use in the UK.
If the UK Government is to achieve its ambition to “leave the natural environment in a better state than we found it” then it must resist efforts by trade partners to push the UK to authorise, or reverse bans on, pesticides which harm wildlife and contaminate water and soil. It must also avoid exporting its environmental footprint by accepting imports of food or animal feed grown elsewhere using environmentally-damaging pesticides, as well as products that have driven other serious environmental problems such as deforestation.