Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 16 July 2026 (IICA) – The Ministers of Agriculture of the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS) expressed concern that the regulatory initiatives currently under discussion in the European Union (EU) regarding Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) and import tolerances for plant protection products lack a scientific risk assessment. As a result, they warned that these measures could undermine the predictability of international food trade, create uncertainty, and weaken the coherence of the rules-based multilateral trading system.
The consensus was reached during a CAS meeting held in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and was conveyed to the European Union in a letter sent by Bolivia’s Minister of Productive Development, Rural Economy and Water and Pro Tempore President of CAS, Óscar Mario Justiniano.
CAS is the regional consultation and coordination forum composed of the Ministers of Agriculture of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. For more than 20 years, it has served as a key platform for defining a common regional agricultural agenda. The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) serves as its Technical Secretariat.
In the letter addressed to the EU, Minister Justiniano stated that the proposed regulatory initiatives on MRLs for plant protection products are of strategic importance to agri-food relations between the CAS countries and the EU, as well as to the stability, predictability, and sustainability of international food trade.
During the meeting, the CAS ministers reaffirmed their strong commitment to protecting human health, ensuring food safety and strengthening the multilateral trading system. In that regard, they stressed that MRLs established on the basis of scientific risk assessments and in accordance with relevant international standards are effective tools for protecting consumer health without creating unnecessary barriers to trade.
The letter notes that the CAS countries play an essential role in global food security and have established themselves as leaders in efficient and responsible agricultural production despite increasing sanitary and climate-related challenges. It further states that preserving a regulatory framework based on science, cooperation, transparency, and full respect for internationally agreed multilateral rules is essential to deepening relations among countries.
The CAS meeting—which was held in Bolivia for the first time in 13 years—was attended, in addition to Minister Justiniano, by Chile’s Minister of Agriculture, Jaime Campos; Uruguay’s Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Alfredo Fratti; Advisor to Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Sibelle de Andrade Silva; Argentina’s Undersecretary for Food Markets and International Integration at the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Agustín Tejeda; and Paraguay’s Director General of Planning at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Félix Carballo.
Climate outlook for agricultural production
During the meeting, the ministers received a detailed presentation on climate outlooks for each of the Southern Cone countries for this year’s winter and spring seasons. The report was prepared by the Cooperative Program for Agrifood and Agroindustrial Technology Development in the Southern Cone (PROCISUR), with contributions from specialists from several public agricultural research institutions.
According to the report, the emergence of El Niño is expected to bring both opportunities and risks for agricultural production. Increased water availability is likely to benefit farming activities, provided that producers have access to timely and reliable climate information to support sound decision-making. At the same time, the report warned of the possibility of severe storms and flooding in some areas.
The ministers also approved a declaration welcoming the vote held this month in the European Parliament rejecting the proposed regulation that would have classified soybean as a high indirect land-use change (ILUC) risk feedstock. Had the proposal been adopted, soybean-based biofuels would have been excluded from use in the European Union as part of its energy transition objectives. In that context, the CAS ministers reiterated their opposition to unilateral regulatory approaches that are not science-based and that constitute disguised restrictions on open, predictable, and rules-based international food trade.
The Federation of Rural Associations of Expanded MERCOSUR (FARM) also participated in the CAS meeting and presented a document outlining the private sector’s concerns about the potential impact of recent EU regulatory initiatives—including the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)—on market access. The document argues that these measures could constitute non-tariff barriers to trade by introducing requirements that, in the Federation’s view, are not sufficiently supported by scientific evidence and fail to recognize the national control, traceability, and certification systems developed by the MERCOSUR countries.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
