Mexican court strikes down Bayer’s legal challenge over glyphosate ban

A Mexican court has reversed a temporary reprieve German firm Bayer received in its legal challenge to a government plan to prohibit glyphosate, Mexico’s environment ministry said on Friday.

Mexico's plan to phase out weed-killer glyphosate amid concerns the pesticide causes cancer has seen it clash with Bayer and the U.S. government, which is opposing the ban.

Bayer, the German pharmaceutical and crop science company that acquired Monsanto in 2018, is one of the world's leading makers of glyphosate as part of its Roundup brand weed-killer.

Last month, a Mexican court gave Bayer a temporary relief from a looming ban on the widely used herbicide.

Mexico's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources on Friday in a statement said the Collegiate Court, in a decision dated May 3, had "revoked" the provisional suspension.

Bayer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador issued a decree late last year that seeks to ban the herbicide completely by 2024, joining several other governments that have sought to restrict its use, including Germany. He has described the chemical as toxic.

Bayer has defended the safety record of glyphosate.