IAHF Webmaster: Codex Emergency, Breaking News, What to Do, USA, All Countries
IAHF List: Go to http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/caftavotecount.htm to see where your congressman stands on CAFTA or if he is undecided.
Live outside USA? Forward this to friends inside the USA, vitamin consumers world wide depend on access to supplements purchased by mail order here and only Americans are in position to drive a stake through the black heart of CAFTA/CODEX.
See this excellent Action Alert on the Liberty Committee Website which details the flurry of last minute back room deal making leading up to the vote as Bush's Whip Operation goes into High Gear and he tries to shove CAFTA down our throats (AND CODEX WITH IT)http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/update07.21.05.htm
Keep those phone calls raining down on them 24/7 from now til Wednesday or Thursday when the vote will likely occur. OK to call after hours & leave mssgs on their machines.
Call TOLL FREE via 866-340-9281 to Capital Switchboard--- use the FORM LETTER BELOW as your phone script and also send it in.... REPEATEDLY..... the more times the BETTER if your Congressman is on the fence or if he's planning on voting FOR CAFTA. If he has decided to oppose it, please THANK him and urge him to make a FLOOR STATEMENT to air our concerns- also rest assured that IAHF and allied forces are doing some behind the scenes things that we can't discuss yet which we hope will bring our specific CONCERNS about CAFTA's connection with CODEX FRONT AND CENTER in this debate>>>>>>>>>>>PRESS ON>>>>REGARDLESS!!
email this to your congressman via http://www.house.gov/writerep/
CAFTA BAD FOR DIETARY SUPPLEMENT CONSUMERS: VOTE _NO_ ON CAFTA!!
Dear Congressman_______________________________
Section 6 of the CAFTA Treaty requires us to create a Sanitary Phytosanitary Measures Committee to insure that we enter in to a constant process of harmonizing our laws to international standards. Section 3, the SPS Section of the WTO Trade Agreement, requires us to harmonize our laws to Codex standards: "To harmonize sanitary and phytosanitary measures on as wide a basis as possible, members SHALL base their food safety measures on international standards, guidelines or recommendations." (Codex standards)
On July 4, 2005, the UN's Codex Alimentarius Commission ratified a framework to create a global trade guideline for vitamins and minerals. In November Codex will move to bill in the blanks on allowable potency levels. The methodology being employed by the World Health Organization to fill in these blanks is scientifically biased given that it is only examining supposed "risks" of vitamins, while completely ignoring benefits, and its been heavily criticized by the Alliance for Natural Health in these extensive comments submitted to WHO http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/_docs/ANHWebsiteDoc_121.pdf
ANH, along with all other critics of WHO's biased methodology were barred from participation in a "Nutrient Risk Assessment Workshop" presided over by an FDA employee, Dr.Christine Lewis Taylor, an unelected bureaucrat with a known bias against the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act of 1994 and against consumer access to vitamins and minerals within the therapeutic range.
Given the well demonstrated bias, and flawed scientific methodology being employed, it is highly probable that Codex will fill in the blanks for allowed potencies of vitamins and minerals to potencies that are well below the therapeutic range- even lower than RDAs in some instances are reflected by column in the right side of this table: http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/_docs/ANHWebsiteDoc_145.doc
Attorneys who have analyzed this situation caution us that we're dealing with emerging law here and that anything can happen. For example, the FDA has recently blocked some manufacturers from marketing products containing one or more New Dietary Ingredients (NDIs). Under DSHEA, any ingredient not in use at the time DSHEA was ratified is classified as an NDI, and the FDA requires the manufacturer submit 90 days advance notice of intent to market a product with it along with safety data to show a history of safe use.
It would be easy for FDA to block a foreign product from coming in here due to its containing one or more NDIs, and the foreign manufacturer could initiate a trade dispute against us. Threat of cross sector trade sanctions has forced congress to change our laws on several occassions. Under these circumstances there is no reason to expect that the SPS Committee established under CAFTA wouldn't strongly recommend that congress pass legislation which scuttles the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 as mandated by Section 3 of in the WTO Trade Agreement which requires harmonization to Codex. Enormous political pressure could be applied to congress for this purpose by industries that would be impacted by trade sanctions- overriding the will of the people.
A vehicle for this purpose has already been introduced in the form of HR 3156 "The Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act" which would force substantive changes to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, effectively gutting it.
Public Citizen has documented that we have lost 33 out of 36 cases brought against us before the WTO, and that we've lost EVERY case pertaining to environmental or public health matters. Frankly, I don't like those odds, and am not willing to take any chances.
Signed___________________________________________
Address_____________________________________________
Note: IAHF received a huge bill for going over allotted bandwidth on our website this month due to enormous visitation generated from radio shows and interest in this issue. Many thanks to those who have donated, but if you haven't made your donation yet, please do via paypal at http://www.iahf.com, enter the site and see the paypal button on the top of the scrollbar, or please donate to: IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd, Point Roberts, WA 98281
IAHF to speak at PANLA Conference in Pennsylvania in August, see http://www.panla.org for details.
Radio Shows Coming Up This Coming Week..... PLEASE SNOWBALL THIS ALERT>>>>>>
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