The White House said that glyphosate-based herbicides are widely used in American agriculture, but there is only one domestic producer, necessitating imports.

The executive order tasks the US secretary of agriculture to take measures to facilitate the US production of glyphosate and phosphorus, a chemical component necessary for glyphosate but which also has military uses.

While the US Environmental Protection Agency does not consider glyphosate a carcinogen, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization (WHO), classifies it as a "probable carcinogen."

German agrichemical giant Bayer said Tuesday its subsidiary Monsanto had proposed a class settlement of up to $7.25 billion to settle claims that its glyphosate herbicide Roundup causes blood cancer, potentially drawing a line under years of costly litigation.

The US Supreme Court in January agreed to hear Bayer's appeal against an award of $1.25 million to a Missouri man who claimed Roundup was responsible for his blood cancer.