The European Commission withdrew its proposal that the MRL be revised downwards from 2mg/kg to 1mg/kg due to difficulties with MRLs for another compound contained in the same proposal.
As a result member states are now allowed to set their own temporary national temporary levels for2,4-D on citrus.
PSD scientists and government lawyers are now hard at work to put a UK import tolerance level in place before the July 1 deadline and make sure that UK measures are legally robust and could be defended if challenged. 'If it doesn't work,' warned FPC chief executive Doug Henderson, 'then there will be no citrus imported.' Other countries such as Germany do not have the same procedures as the UK in place and could find themselves unable to import citrus from July 1.
However, some industry analysts believe that the regulation will be too hard to enforce and so arrival of third country citrus into individual member states is not under serious threat.
The fact that the EU, one of the world's largest trading blocks, finds itself in this position is another issue giving cause for concern. Despite the fact that the European Commission announced changes to the MRL two years ago, producers in key production regions around the world have been ill-prepared and have not acted in time.
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