Foreword

Laws and regulations are one of the key levers governments can use to improve the wellbeing of societies, alongside fiscal or momentary policy. But governments need to ensure that laws and regulations are fit-for purpose and effective in achieving their goals such as protecting human health and the environment. To this end, the OECD 2012 Recommendation of the Council on Regulatory Policy and Governance recommends that policy makers and public officials “conduct systematic programme reviews of the stock of significant regulation against clearly defined policy goals, including consideration of costs and benefits, to ensure that regulations remain up to date, cost-justified, cost-effective and consistent and delivers the intended policy objectives”.

This report on Regulatory Governance in the Pesticide Sector in Mexico identifies the gaps, barriers, implementation flaws and inefficiencies that affect the regulatory framework of pesticides in Mexico. In particular, it takes stock of the regulatory framework and recent reforms in pesticides in Mexico and identifies the areas that pose the greatest challenges for effective regulation of these products as well as those in which the regulation – or the absence thereof – affects policy objectives and economic activity the most. These framework and practices are assessed against OECD principles in regulatory policy and pesticide regulation, and country experiences from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, and recommendations are provided to continue the reform efforts.

The review was carried out under the auspices of the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee whose mandate is to assist both members and non-members in building and strengthening capacity for regulatory quality and regulatory reform, in collaboration with the Chemicals and Biotechnology Committee. The report was consulted for comments with an wide range of stakeholders in Mexico and internationally, including authorities, experts and private representatives in the areas of human, vegetable, animal and environmental protection, and regulatory improvement. It was reviewed by the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee in 21 April 2021 and of the OECD Chemicals Committee on 9 of June 2021, and later approved and declassified by the two committees and prepared for publication by the Secretariat.

The information used for the preparation of this report came from four main sources: desk research conducted by the OECD Secretariat, a questionnaire answered by key stakeholders information submitted by international experts to prepare the country case studies, a virtual fact-finding mission during September and October 2020 with Mexican government agencies, NGOs, academics and industry associations, and a virtual policy workshop which took place on 2 February 2021. It is to be noted that most of the work was done during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had repercussions on logistics and availability of stakeholders. Statistics and figures gathered as part of the desk research came predominantly from official sources, and from recognised international organisations.