By Diane Bartz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The China National Chemical Corp, or ChemChina, has won U.S. antitrust approval to buy Switzerland's Syngenta AG (S:SYNN) on condition that it divest three pesticides, the Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.
To win approval for the $43 billion (£34.56 billion) deal, the companies agreed to divest ChemChina's generic production of the herbicide paraquat, the insecticide abamectin used for citrus and tree nuts and the fungicide chlorothalonil, used for peanut and potato crops.
Syngenta had $13.4 billion in sales in the United States in 2015, according to a report the company put out last year.
The deal was prompted by China's desire to use Syngenta's portfolio of top-tier chemicals and patent-protected seeds to improve domestic agricultural output. The country is the world's largest agricultural market.
The deal is one of several that is remaking the market for agricultural chemicals, seeds and fertilizers. The trend toward market consolidation has triggered fears among farmers that the pipeline for new herbicides and pesticides might slow.
The other deals in the sector are a $130 billion proposed merger of Dow Chemical (N:DOW) and DuPont (N:DD) and Bayer's