Agrochemical regulation in Brazil: market power vs. health and environment defense

Abstract

This article aims to provide an historical retrospect of the Law 7802/89,which introduced stricter environmental, public health and agronomical performancecriteria for registering agrochemicals. Groups of interest argue that strictercriteria for registering those products favor the maintenance of an oligopolisticstructure controlled by transnational companies, which avoids the access to equivalentproduct companies able to reduce agrochemicals’ prices. The hypothesis ofthis article states that this argument has no empirical foundation once this industrypresents a highly concentrated structure due to high economies of scale and scopewhich makes the effects of a more stringent regulation marginal or ineffective. Thishypothesis is sustained through the characterization of the Brazilian agrochemical market structure, followed by the description of the agrochemical regulatory bodytrajectory. Such a description is based on an institutionalist approach, which highlightsthe influence of interest groups over decision-making process of the state.