US countered on call for delay of agro-chemical ban

By The Nation

 

 

Vitoon Leanjamroon, director of BioThai Foundation, has countered the call by US Agricultural Department for a delay on the ban on agro-chemical glyphosate. The US agency said the ban would disrupt Thailand’s import of soybean, wheat, coffee, apples, grapes and other agricultural produce, worth up to Bt51 billion annually, from the US and other trading partners.

 

Vitoon believed it showed the US was trying to interfere with the ban on the agro-chemical in Thailand to protect its interest in agricultural exports to the Kingdom.

 

 

The US claimed that its Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that glyphosate poses no meaningful risk to human health when used as authorised. Vitoon found the claim false as Thailand based its decision on data in the report from the International Cancer Research Organisation (IARC) under the World Health Organization (WHO) and verdict of the United States Court of Justice (on March 27, 2019) on the case of Monsanto. The giant pesticide company was ordered to paid Bt2.5 billion in compensation to people who developed cancer from using three glyphosate-mix herbicides. The judge's ruling was based on the scientific evidence of IARC.

 

“Thailand’s ban on the pesticide went through discussions and scientific evidence. His [Ted McKinney's] claim that we didn’t make a decision based on science appears false. Moreover, the California court also ordered the ban of chlorpyrifos,” Vitoon said

 

He said Ted McKinney, the undersecretary of Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs of the US Department of Agriculture and the author of a letter to the Thai prime minister seeking a delay on the ban, had worked at Dow AgroSciences, one of the biggest agro-chemical manufacturer and distributors in the United States, for 19 years.

 

The company was reportedly a venture capitalist for the Donald Trump government, leading him to believe that was the reason the US had not banned the use of chlorpyrifos.

 

The US claimed that the ban on glyphosate would instantly pause the imports of soy, wheat and other US agricultural produce, affecting Bt51 billion in exports. It will also affect crispy pastry and instant noodle manufacturers who rely on imported wheat from the US as Thailand will set the residue of such chemicals to 0 per cent on imports.

 

This claim was also false, he said, as chemical checking of imported agriculture and food in Thailand are based on safe residues in accordance with international food standards (Codex) under the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

 

Thailand also does not only import soybean and wheat from the United States. It also sources the produce from other countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, and Ukraine.The imports are randomly checked for chemical residues in accordance with international standards.

 

“How can we only ban US products but not those from other countries. That is discrimination,” the BioThai director said.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30377751

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-10-26

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9 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

The US claimed that its Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that glyphosate poses no meaningful risk to human health when used as authorised. Vitoon found the claim false as Thailand based its decision on data in the report from the International Cancer Research Organisation (IARC) under the World Health Organization (WHO) and verdict of the United States Court of Justice (on March 27, 2019) on the case of Monsanto. The giant pesticide company was ordered to paid Bt2.5 billion in compensation to people who developed cancer from using three glyphosate-mix herbicides. The judge's ruling was based on the scientific evidence of IARC.

 

10 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Ted McKinney, the undersecretary of Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs of the US Department of Agriculture and the author of a letter to the Thai prime minister seeking a delay on the ban, had worked at Dow AgroSciences, one of the biggest agro-chemical manufacturer and distributors in the United States, for 19 years.

Any further comment would be superfluous.

Way to go Vitoon!

"The US claimed that the ban on glyphosate would instantly pause the imports of soy, wheat and other US agricultural produce, affecting Bt51 billion in exports."

 

Does this infer that the US would not sell these items to Thailand or that Thailand would stop buying them from the US ?

and in other news today:

Trump suspends 40 billion baht worth of duty-free trade for Thailand

I believe in reading all this information that Free Trade is in a bad way.

The nations withdraw on themselves;

The Europe of , I do not know how many countries is likely to explode in full flight following the good example of the British ....

when the core is bad the whole apple quickly becomes rotten..

I pray that this is the catalyst that picks interest in Thailand and its in port tax/tariffs on anything imported into Thailand sometimes upto 300% tax/duty. Oh how great it would be if the protectionist policies were reviewed and looked into. The one that springs to mind is the fact that US citizens are allowed to own land (to build a house on) in Thailand but as far as I'm aware no land office in the whole of Thailand has issued a land ownership to an American to date. 

11 hours ago, bluesofa said:

 

Any further comment would be superfluous.

indeed. 
The canon is completely loose now it seems
yet the DT-cult followers only slowly start waking up.

On 10/26/2019 at 7:42 AM, rooster59 said:

Vitoon found the claim false as Thailand based its decision on data in the report from the International Cancer Research Organisation (IARC) under the World Health Organization (WHO) and verdict of the United States Court of Justice (on March 27, 2019) on the case of Monsanto. The giant pesticide company was ordered to paid Bt2.5 billion in compensation to people who developed cancer from using three glyphosate-mix herbicides. The judge's ruling was based on the scientific evidence of IARC.

 

On 10/26/2019 at 7:42 AM, rooster59 said:

Vitoon believed it showed the US was trying to interfere with the ban on the agro-chemical in Thailand to protect its interest in agricultural exports to the Kingdom.

Profit over safety... anyone who believes what USA think is safe and what's reality take a long hard look at the Boeing aircraft fiasco... a once credible company with a fine safety record reduced to lies to protect the profit margin by pen pushers !

Agriculture is driven by profit in the same way.