IAHF List:
We must ACT NOW to defend our access to dietary supplements.
This morning I got up early and watched the deliberations in the House Ways and Means Committee on CAFTA. When they held a vote at the end of the session many congressmen had already left the room due to other business they had to attend to, so they're leaving the roll open for ongoing votes right up til 5 PM. When they adjourned, the vote was 24 in favor of passage, and only 11 against.
ACTION STEP 1: Go here and send the form letter http://ga4.org/campaign/codex
ACTION STEP 2: We can still call the House Ways and Means Committee http://waysandmeans.house.gov/members.asp to express our concerns til 5 PM, and
ACTION STEP 3: We MUST Call our Senators since CAFTA is going to be voted on in the Senate this evening, they're debating it now on the floor.
ACTION STEP 4: In all probability CAFTA will pass in the Senate by a narrow margin, and the REAL fight will be in the HOUSE after Congress reconvenes following the week long July 4th recess. They could end up on the floor the day they return on July 11th. Please make appointments to meet with your Congressman during the recess when he or she is in your state because they come back to their states at that time to spend time in their district offices and sometimes they hold town meetings and we can address our concerns.
It is IMPERATIVE that we make the effort to meet with them over the recess, so please make your calls today to your congressman's office to make an appointment. Have them watch Kevin Miller's documentary on CODEX/CAFTA "We Become Silent" at http://www.iahf.com/wbs-weba.mp4
HERE is a phone script to use when calling thru the Capital Switchboard at 202-225-3121 If you're not sure of your senators names, just give the switchboard operator your zipcode and they'll know and connect you.
I urge you to Vote No to the CAFTA-DR agreement, due to a crucial detail in this treaty that is not being mentioned.
There is a clause that will devastate our current laws concerning access to vitamins, supplements and to health freedom and, as a result, destroy thousands of small businesses, home businesses and health practitioners.
Small businesses are recognized by the government as the leading creator of private sector jobs. There are now hundreds of thousands of small businesses related to health and supplements, some run from home by self-employed people. Destruction of these would be a totally unacceptable consequence.
I oppose CAFTA because in Section 6 it requires the United States, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to revise our food laws and regulations, based on decisions made by the Codex Alimentarius (International Food Code) Commission, or Codex.
The WTO can and has sanctioned nations for not following Codex guidelines.
WTO tribunals have ruled against the USA in 42 out of 48 cases. Many of these have been very costly to our economy.
Passage of CAFTA would force the "harmonization" of our dietary supplement laws and regulations to international standards, as established by the supranational Codex Commission. Doing so would drastically infringe on the quality of dietary supplements and access to supplements that people like me are used to.
The passage of CAFTA could effectively override the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994. CAFTA would restrict our health freedom of choice, destroy thousands of small businesses in the health foods and dietary supplement fields, and negatively impact health care practitioners and the 150 million regular consumers of dietary supplements like myself.
Any arrangement that leads to the banning of thousands of safe products cannot remotely be described as "free trade". There are better ways to promote regional trade. If this cannot be done without threatening my basic right to have access to nutritional choices then we should scrap CAFTA and start over.
CAFTA is bad for jobs, small businesses, health stores, health freedom, the environment and human rights.
It is passionately opposed by the populations of all the CAFTA countries! It will only benefit very few.
The small benefits would be vastly outweighed by the negatives. It has been shown that arguments for it have been based on very distorted numbers, and extraordinary assumptions that the US will not import significantly more from Central America.
Since 70 percent of the US population use dietary supplements, and 40 percent use them on a regular basis, this is a significant constituency, which should not be underestimated.
I appreciate your consideration of my views and look forward to knowing the Senator's position is on this treaty.
