. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/113 
5 July 2006 
 (06-3250) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:    
EC-TBT Enquiry Point, 
Fax:  (+32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  ec-tbt@cec.eu.int 
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):   Plant protection products 
containing dimethenamid (pesticide active substance). 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Draft Commission 
Decision concerning the non-inclusion of dime thenamid in Annex I to Council Directive 
91/414/EEC and the withdrawal of authorisati ons for plant protection products containing 
that substance  (6 pages, in English). 
6. Description of content:   Provides that dimethenamid is not included in the positive 
Community list and that Member States have to  withdraw authorisations for plant protection 
products containing this substance.  This deci sion only concerns the placing on the market 
of this substance and does not affect the Co mmunity or national Maximum Residue Levels 
(MRLs) for residues of the concerned pesticides. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:    
Directive 91/414/EEC concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market 
sets up a harmonised framework for the authorisation and placing on the market of plant protection products in order to protect  human health and the environment. 
Article 8(2) of this Directive provides a progr amme to be carried out over a period of 12 
years for the gradual examination of the active substances contained in the plant protection products on the market.  Substances for which the outcome of the evaluation is favourable 
are then included in Annex I of the Directive. 
Dimethenamid is a substance covered by the second stage of this work programme. G/TBT/N/EEC/113 
Page 2  
 
  The evaluation of this active substance identified a number of concerns in particular its 
environmental fate and behaviour  which could result in groundwater contamination due to 
the formation of soil degradation unidentif ied compounds with possible annual average 
leachate concentrations higher than 0.1µg/l.  Moreover, the consumer risk assessment could 
not be finalised due to lack of toxicol ogical data on the above mentioned breakdown 
products. 
8. Relevant documents:   Draft Commission Decision concerning the non-inclusion of 
dimethenamid in Annex I to Council Dire ctive 91/414/EEC and the withdrawal of 
authorisations for plant protection products containing that substance (Doc. SANCO/10422/2005 rev 4). 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
 Proposed date of entry into force:    September 2006 
MS have to withdraw all existing 
authorizations for plant protection products 
containing dimethenamid 6 months after date 
of adoption. 
10. Final date for comments:   60 days from date of notification 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [    ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:   
European Commission, 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point, 
Fax:  (+32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:  ec-tbt@cec.eu.int