IAHF Webmaster: Codex Emergency, USA, What to Do:
IAHF List:
Please click on this link and listen to the audio announcement I just recorded Click This Link To Play
http://PlayAudio-123.com/play.asp?m=195411&f=XBIQOV&ps=7&p=1
If you don't have speakers, not to worry- here was the gist of my message:
CAFTA is in political trouble in the House. The Hispanic Caucus recently came out against it, saying that its bad for central America AND for the USA. Its pretty hard for Bush to do spin against the stats from the FAILED NAFTA Agreement- our trade deficit is up to $617 Billion, but beyond that, the jobs that initially went do Mexico have since all gone to even CHEAPER sources of third world labor in China, and elsewhere- and the same thing would happen in Central America.
The Washington Post is calling this "too close to call" and says CAFTA could come down to ONE SINGLE VOTE in the House. So our calls and emails actually MATTER, and it REALLY helps when we get face to face meetings as I did yesterday and as some of you have also been getting with your congressmen. Tomorrow would be your last chance to meet with them in person before they return, and you should make the effort. In any case, please DO take the ACTION recommended below:
On the HEALTH FREEDOM/ CAFTA FRONT:
Yesterday I drove down to Bellingham WA and attended a Town Mtg run by my congressman, Rick Larsen. He already opposes CAFTA, but I'm hoping he might make a floor statement against it on the House floor which airs our concerns as dietary supplement consumers given the danger posed by the SPS language lurking within it.
All its going to take is one or more Congressmen to air our concern from the House floor to put them ALL on notice that if they vote for CAFTA they'll be touching the THIRD RAIL and committing political SUICIDE by angering millions of vitamin consumers who wield huge impact at the ballot box.
I told Larsen we were working hard to interest congressmen De Fazio and Paul to issue a "Dear Colleague" letter and to make floor statements to insure that members of the House realize that millions of vitamin consumers who flooded congress in '94 during the campaign to pass DSHEA will not tolerate CAFTA or anyone who votes for it.
I made him aware that Section 6 of CAFTA would require the USA to form a Sanitary Phytosanitary Measures Committee for the purpose of insuring that we entered into a constant process of harmonizing our laws under the terms of the SPS Agreement in the WTO.
I told him that Article 3 of the WTO's SPS Agreement requires us to harmonize our food safety laws (read DSHEA) to Codex standards. It states "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 sets the standards for food safety, including vitamins and minerals.)
I handed him information that I'd previously sent to his aide and concluded by brief conversation after this Town Meeting by urging him to watch Kevin Miller's documentary "We Become Silent" at http://www.welltv.com and by handing him material to read on the plane on his way back to DC.
Several other people on the IAHF list also had meetings with their congressmen during the July 4th recess and some of you may be able to get a meeting tomorrow in your congressman's district office in your home state or you may already have lined one up. If so, I hope this helps.
Its important to realize that when congress reconvenes next monday(July 11th) they might not go straight to the House Floor on CAFTA, Bush could take a few days because he's desperate to line up more votes- but it will probably happen next week sometime. We have to keep calling (via Capital Switchboard 202-225-3121) and have to keep sending the following form letter in, right up til they vote, and please snowball this alert!!
To email this to your congressman, please go to: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
CAFTA BAD FOR DIETARY SUPPLEMENT CONSUMERS-
SPS LANGUAGE BURIED IN IT
THREATENS HARMONIZATION TO CODEX
Dear Congressman______________________
In 1994 vitamin consumers generated the largest volume of mail to Congress on any issue in the HISTORY of Congress when we passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.
Today, CAFTA threatens to undo all of our hard work, and to set the USA up for harmonization to an excessively restrictive global trade guideline for vitamins and minerals just finalized on July 4th 2005 at the 28 General Session of the UN's Codex Alimentarius Commission.
The seeds of our health freedom destruction are sewn inside Section 6 of CAFTA where members are forced to form a Sanitary-Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Committee for the purpose of insuring ONGOING HARMONIZATION of our laws under the terms of the SPS Agreement in the WTO Trade Agreement. (See http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/CAFTA/CAFTA-DR_Final_Texts/Section_Index.html
If you examine Article 3 of the WTO's SPS Agreement you will read the following words: "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 sets the international standard for food safety, and they intend to fill in the blanks on allowed potencies at levels even LOWER than RDAs- see http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/_docs/ANHWebsiteDoc_145.doc
Vitamin consumers drove many congressmen out of office who failed to vote for DSHEA in '94.
Any member of Congress who fails to heed our concerns about CAFTA and votes for this unconstitutional trade agreement anyway, despite how it sets us up for harmonization to Codex, and despite its continuing the failed policies of NAFTA which gave us our present $617 Billion trade deficit risks being driven from office. IAHF will be posting a list of any member of Congress who ignores our concerns. We urge you to watch Kevin Miller's excellent documentary on this issue at http://www.welltv.com
Signed____________________
Address____________________________
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