A Brazilian Judge has overturned the legal suspension of the use of products containing glyphosate, the world’s most used herbicide.
Judge Kássio Marques, of the regional federal court of the first district in Brasilia, based the ruling suspending the injunction on the government’s argument that banning glyphosate and the other two agrochemicals could harm the country’s economy.
Marques said in the decision “nothing justifies the suspension and abrupt removal of registrations of products containing glyphosate, abamectin and thiram as active ingredients without an analysis of the serious impacts on the country’s economy and population in general.”
In August, a federal judge in Brasilia ruled that new products containing the chemicals could not be registered in the country and existing registrations would be suspended within the next 30 days, until the government reevaluates their toxicology.
The original ruling affected companies such as Bayer (Monsanto), which markets a glyphosate-resistant, genetically-modified type of soybean that is planted on a large scale in Brazil.
Certain glyphosate-resistant corn and cotton strains have also been authorized in Brazil.
Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of soybeans, driven largely by growing demand from China.