Throughout 2024 and 2025, thousands of frustrated European farmers blocked major highways and shut down the continent’s busiest cities. This was in protest of soaring fuel and fertilizer costs, the growth of cheap imports that destabilized local markets and tightening environmental regulations. In December 2025, the European Commission responded with the release of its much-anticipated Food and Feed Safety Simplification Package, otherwise known as Omnibus X. The legislative package contained technical, environmental and trade policy mechanisms meant to address farmers’ concerns. But buried in the package is a contentious mirror clause that, if passed, will reduce import pesticide residue limits to a “technical zero” for any substance banned for use in the EU. Neonicotinoids were the first to go; new limits took effect in March. Although it has not specified which ones, Brussels has signalled that more chemistries will follow. The clause raises serious concerns for global trading partners, chief among them Canada, who could be regulated out of European trade for using products declared perfectly safe in their own jurisdictions.