WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/FRA/69 
26 September 2007 
 (07-4051) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   French 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  FRANCE
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):  
2. Agency responsible:  
Ministère de l'Agriculture et de la Pêche  (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) 
Direction Générale de la Forêt et des Affai res Rurales / Sous-Direction de l'Environnement 
et de la Ruralite / Bureau des Sols et de l'Eau  (Directorate-General of Forestry and Rural 
Affairs / Sub-Directorate of the Environmen t and Rurality / Soil and Water Management 
Bureau) 78, rue de Varenne 75 349 PARIS 07 SP Tel.: +(0)1 49 55 59 27 
Fax: +(0)1 49 55 59 87 
E-mail: kristell.cohu@agriculture.gouv.fr 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers and E-mail and website 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):   Sprayers (new and used) 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Arrêté pris en 
application du a) de l'artic le D. 256-10 du code rural  (Order implementing Article D. 256-
10(a) of the Rural Code) (3 pages, in French). 
6. Description of content:   Pursuant to Article 41 of  the Law on Water and Aquatic 
Environments ( Loi sur l'eau et les milieux aquatiques , LEMA), No. 2006-1772 of 
30 December 2006, new or used sprayers sold  by mechanized equipment professionals for 
use within national territory are required to  comply with provisions designed to reduce 
environmental and public health risks. 
 The implementing legislation for this Article was developed on the basis of the 
principles of the EC doctrine of the "New Approach":  the notified Order lays down the requirements for boom sprayers and tree and shrub sprayers, new or used, while the 
references of standards, technical specifications and manufacturing processes establishing 
the presumption of conformity with these requi rements may be published in the Official 
Journal of the French Republic. G/TBT/N/FRA/69 
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  6. Description of content:   (cont'd) These requirements do not address operator safety, insofar 
as such provisions are already established in th e Labour Code as a result of the transposition 
of Machinery Directive 98/37/EC.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable: 
 The technical rules governing the sale of sprayers, as established by the notified 
draft Order, seek to reduce the environmenta l and public health risks posed by plant 
protection products.  In particular, these rules serve to prevent contamination of the drinking 
water supply network, to limit contamination of the soil, the air or a body of water as a 
result either of product loss during the use of equipment or of effluent generated by such 
use, and to ensure that products are app lied evenly, thereby preventing localized over-
application, and that sprayers are in good working order. 
 These rules form part of the implementation of priority action under the 
Interministerial Plan for reduci ng pesticide-related risks 2006-2009 ( Plan interministériel de 
réduction des risques liés aux pesticides 2006-2009 , PIRRP), published in June 2006 by the 
Ministries responsible for ecology, agriculture, health and consumption in response to the 
following findings: in 2004, in terms of the quantity of substances sold, France ranked third 
on the world market for phytosanitary products and first on the European market 
(75,100 tonnes of active substances sold, 90 per cen t of which being for agricultural use);  it 
also ranked fourth in Europe per cultivated h ectare (excluding grass-covered surfaces).  The 
use of these substances can generate direct or indirect risks for humans (both users and the general public, who are exposed via the ai r, water and food) and for ecosystems 
(biodiversity).  The information available demonstrates: 
 - Generalized contamination of water by pesticides.  The requirement under 
the Water Framework Directive with regard to achieving good ecological 
and chemical status by 2015 has currently only been met by a third of watercourses and half of groundwater.  The quality of the water supply is, 
on the other hand, good as far as pestic ides are concerned, with 99 per cent 
of analyses being standards-compliant; 
 
 - the presence of certain pesticides in other compartments of the 
environment:  in soils, with, for example, a high persistence of organochlorines which have been banned for over 10 years, and in the air; 
 
 - potential effects on human health, as shown by epidemiological studies, 
which may be chronic (for example,  congenital malformations, cancers, 
lymphomas) or acute, but without it being systematically possible to prove the causal link.  By way of example, farmers are observed to have a lower incidence of cancer than other sectors of the population, but a heightened 
risk exists for certain specific types of cancer. 
  G/TBT/N/FRA/69 
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  7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where
applicable:   (cont'd) 
 At Community level, a similar finding led the European Union (EU) to adopt a 
series of measures designed to reduce the risk s of pesticide use to the environment and 
human health and, more generally , to achieve a more sustainable use of pesticides as well as 
a significant overall reduction in risks and of th e use of pesticides (cf. the Communication 
from the Commission of 12 July 2006, entitled:  "A Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable 
Use of Pesticides" [COM(2006) 372]).  One elemen t of this strategy is the measure making 
it mandatory for pesticide application equipmen t to meet environmental requirements before 
being placed on the market.  This particular measure was not, however, incorporated into 
the Proposal for a Directive of 12 July 20 06 establishing a framework for Community 
action to achieve a sustainable use of pesticid es, which is currently under review by the 
European Council and the European Parlia ment.  The Commission will subsequently 
propose another directive in this field wh ich could amend Directive 2006/42/EC of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on machinery, and amending 
Directive 95/16/EC. 
 Compliance with the time frame established in Article 102.I of the Law on Water 
and Aquatic Environments (LEMA), No. 2006- 1772 of 30 December 2006, by the French 
Parliament with regard to the entry into force of this measure (1 January 2009) and with the 
time-limits established in the Water Framew ork Directive (2000/60/EC) for achieving good 
water status (by 2015) requires the prompt adoption of a domestic regulation, pending the 
adoption, at Community level, of a directive harmonizing the environmental requirements 
applicable to pesticide application equipment. 
 This draft regulation has been well received by the agricultural sector, which 
considers that its impact on farmers' income will be minimal. 
 Compliance with this new regulation will not present any difficulties for 
mechanized equipment professionals. 
 Compliance with the requirements laid down in the draft Order is automatic for all 
new sprayers manufactured in accordance with  standard NF EN 12 761-1, -2 and
-3 (September 2001):  Sprayers and liquid fertili zer distributors.  Environmental protection.  
This standard is known to sprayer manufacturer s and its practical applicability has already 
been demonstrated.  Furthermore, the fulfilme nt of certain specific requirements under these 
standards, compliance with which requires stru ctural changes to a sprayer (unless already 
implemented), is required only as of 1 January 2011, to afford manufacturers sufficient time 
to bring their production into line. 
 With regard to used sprayers, only the requirements corresponding to the provisions 
of this standard which do not involve any st ructural changes and which present the greatest 
environmental benefit have been incorporated  in the measure in order to ensure its 
proportionality.  
8. Relevant documents:   Décret relatif aux prescriptions app licables aux matériels, vendus 
neufs ou d'occasion, destinés à l'application de produits phytosanitaires  (Decree 
establishing the requirements for new or used equipment designed for the application of 
phytosanitary products), notified in document G/TBT/N/FRA/68. 
9. Proposed date of adoption: 
Proposed date of entry into force:  April 2007 
1 January 2009 G/TBT/N/FRA/69 
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  10. Final date for comments:   - 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, E-mail and website addresses,  if available, of other body:  
National enquiry point 
CINORTECH AFNOR 
11 avenue Francis Pressensé 
93571 Saint Denis La Plaine Cedex