Analysis of the development trends of specific trade concerns on EU pesticide residue measures

The European Union (EU) is an important target market for the export of the plant-derived agro-products of China, and it is also one of the regions with the strictest food safety control. In recent years, EU has withdrawn the approval of a variety of pesticides, and lowered the maximum residue limits (MRLs) of related pesticides to the limit of quantification (LOQ), which had a significant impact on international trade of agro-products. The members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) pay more attention on the pesticide residue measures that EU has taken. In this article, the cases of the specific trade concerns on sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS STCs) related to the EU pesticide residue control that proposed by WTO members from 1995 to 2022 were analyzed and studied.The basic situation of the WTO member concerns about the measures that EU has taken on pesticides residue limits were systematically analyzed, including the total number of STCs, the members who raised the STCs, the specific measures that have been taken, the types of agro-products that are concerned, as well as the status of the STCs. The main countermeasures to overcome the negative impacts of the EU’s strict measures of the pesticide residue limits on international trade were elaborated and proposed.