Blair U-turns on pesticide tax.(Brief Article)

Under pressure from the agrochemical lobby, the British government has dropped plans to tax agricultural pesticide use.

The decision, announced by Tony Blair in a speech to the National Farmers Union in February, has delighted agrochemical lobbyists. The tax, according to the government's own figures, would have reduced the quantity of pesticides sprayed on Britain's fields by as much as 20 per cent. But the British Agrochemicals Association (BAA) claimed such taxation would have robbed the industry of [pounds]320million a year. Instead, they proposed an alternative …