Pesticide Regulation System And Its Influence In China

Pesticides are important agricultural production materials and play an extremely important role in controlling pests and diseases,protecting the safe growth of crops,stabilizing crop yields,and promoting the sustainable and stable development of the national economy.Since the reform and opening up,China’s pesticide production capacity has increased rapidly.Pesticide production,usage and international trade have already ranked top in the world.In 2017,China’s pesticide production was 3.7 million tons,ranking first in the world.The total amount of pesticides usage was 1.8 million tons,ranking third in the world,and the export volume of pesticides was 1.5 million tons,ranking first in the world.Though the pesticide industry has developed so fast,there are still many problems in the market,such as overcapacity,unreasonable product structure,low quality,and disordered market order.Moreover,the excessive use of pesticides has a great impact on human and animal health,the environment and the ecosystem.In China,frequent safety accidents caused by excessive use of pesticides and pesticide residues are urgently needed to be adjusted through regulation.The newly revised Pesticide Management Regulations in 2017 have made important adjustments in pesticide registration,production licenses,business licenses,and penalties,but there is still a large gap compared with pesticide regulation system in developed countries.In 2017,the State Council issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Management to Promote the Healthy Development of the Pesticide Industry",and put forward new requirements for pesticide regulation from the aspects of ecological environment,technological innovation,quality improvement,industrial layout and market supervision.Studying China’s pesticide regulation system and its impact is of great significance to the transformation,upgrading and healthy development of the pesticide industry.Firstly,this paper compares and analyzes the pesticide regulation policies between China and the United States,the European Union,Japan and other developed countries or regions,and finds out that China’s pesticide regulation system have some defects in institutional setting,registration system,risk assessment,pesticide residue limit standards,high-toxic pesticide regulation,and penalty to illegal activities.Secondly,this paper studies the impact of the existing regulatory system on pesticide market structure,R&D investment,and product quality.The defects of the regulatory system,such as lack of legislation,low regulatory standards,have led to irrational product structure in the pesticide market,low added value of export products,small scale of pesticide enterprises,low market concentration,low investment in research and development,and inferior pesticides.The quality of pesticide products is essentially caused by information asymmetry among the various stakeholders in pesticide market.The weak regulation have exacerbated quality problems.The third part of this paper studies the facts how information asymmetry influence the quality of pesticide products.The results show that the information asymmetry between pesticide manufacturers will push enterprises to produce inferior pesticides,but they are bound by the reputation mechanism in an infinite.repeated games.Information asymmetry between producers and consumers can lead to moral hazard and adverse choices.Information asymmetry between production companies and regulatory agencies can affect the quality of pesticide products.Through above research,this paper proposes the following policy recommendations:improve the pesticide regulation system from the aspects of improving the legal system,reforming the pesticide regulation agency,formulating a scientific pesticide risk assessment mechanism,and improving pesticide residue standards;adjust and optimize the structure of pesticide products,increase the concentration of market,encourage enterprises to increase investment in research and development;formulate strict market access system,improve pesticide quality inspection system,take good advantage of industry associations,promote pesticide professional knowledge to the public.