IAHF Webmaster: Codex Emergency, Anti CAFTA, Breaking News, What to Do, USA
IAHF List:
Bush will attempt to pass CAFTA by July 28th, and you can lob your message of opposition in to your Congressman TOLL FREE at 866-340-9281 (Number provided by United Steelworkers of America who don't want their jobs being outsourced to the third world).
We're at WAR people- Our SOVEREIGNTY is at STAKE see this previous alert:
https://www.ymlp.com/pubarchive_show_message.php?jham+370
Today an Editor from an Iowa Newspaper contacted me wanting my response to some pathetically empty SPIN from Senator Grassley, who sponsored S.1307 the Senate bill on CAFTA which passed a while back (as you know we're still fighting to KILL CAFTA in the House of Representatives.)
Since Grassley was responding to OUR SPECIFIC concerns re CAFTA/CODEX as pertains to the threat the trade agreement poses to our ongoing access to dietary supplements, I thought I'd share what he is saying, and my response- (see below) and I think you'll be especially interested to note that Open Secrets website documents that Grassley is the 10th largest recipient of Pharmaceutical PAC donations of our 50 Senators (Gee- why am I not surprised?)
Also, thought you'd be interested to know that yesterday I made a presentation before the Stolo Tribal Council in Hope, BC Canada on CODEX//CAFTA/ HEALTH FREEDOM and they want to form a Global Council of Indigenous Healers to express OUTRAGE to the UN and to Health Canada over CODEX. Indigenous people globally have seen far more than their "fair share" of genocidal oppression and gross injustice, and the Stolo were electrified by Kevin Miller's documentary "We Become Silent" which you can view at http://www.welltv.com if you haven't already. This was the first time the film has been shown to an assembled group aside from over the internet.
I shared my personal story of orthomolecular recovery with them, and will be glad to help them form a Global Council of Indigenous Healers to better put the corrupt Codex Commission under the bright light of public scrutiny necessary to stop the impending GENOCIDE.
Grassley says:
"Chapter 6 merely reaffirms the existing rights and obligations of the CAFTA countries under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS Agreement) of the World Trade Organization. New ground isn't being broken with this section. The SPS Agreement of the WTO is important in that it requires that WTO members base their food and agriculture import regulations upon science, and thus ensures that countries will not block exports of U.S. agricultural and food products through the use of regulations that are not based on science.
Chapter 6 also establishes a CAFTA committee on sanitary and phytosanitary matters. This committee will help each of the CAFTA countries implement the SPS Agreement, will enhance consultation and cooperation among the CAFTA countries and the United States on SPS issues, and will facilitate trade among the CAFTA countries and the United States. This committee will not seek to harmonize the dietary supplement laws and regulations of the United States with Codex standards.
Senator Grassley is a strong supporter of alternative medicines and doesn't believe Congress should hinder the rights of patients to choose alternative treatments or the rights of health care practitioners to recommend and provide these treatments.
Here's the comment from Sen. Grassley for you:
"The Central American Free Trade Agreement won't limit access to dietary supplements in any way. If it did, I wouldn't be supporting this agreement. Contrary to the claims of some, the Agreement doesn't require the harmonization of U.S. laws and regulations with Codex standards."
IAHF RESPONSE TO THIS EMPTY SPIN:
This sounds benign enough, but you need to realize that what they'd have you believe is"sound science" here is anything BUT when it comes to the development of global trade standards governing the international sale of vitamins, minerals, and other dietary supplements at Codex- see full discussion of this below.
The first thing I should say about Grassley's statement is consider the source. Grassley, a politician who is awash in Pharma PAC money:
In 2004 he received the 10th most in Pharma PAC Donations of our 50 Senators with $104,122 in drug company donations. http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/pacrecips.asp?Ind=H04&Cycle=2004
Does the pharmaceutical industry have an axe to grind when it comes to passage of CAFTA? Most definitely, and this editorial in the Boston Globe explains that CAFTA
will force its signatories to strengthen protections on patents owned by multinational pharmaceutical companies, thus preventing the manufacture and importation of many cheap generic drugs. The extreme poverty of these countries makes it hard for them to afford these patented products and over 275,000 lives hang in the balance:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/26/cafta_will_hurt_people_with_hiv/
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 6 of CAFTA dovetails with the SPS Section of the WTO Trade Agreement, (Section 3) requiring 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)
QUESTIONING GRASSLEY's ASSERTION THAT OUR SPS PROVISIONS WOULD BE BASED ON SOUND SCIENCE
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 UK based Alliance for Natural Health in these extensive comments submitted to WHO http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/_docs/ANHWebsiteDoc_121.pdf
These comments were compiled by Robert Verkerk, PhD, whose views on this issue are aired in the documentary WE BECOME SILENT http://www.welltv.com which sheds a whole different light on this issue, bringing it out into the open for the world to see more clearly.
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 We see from this table that CODEX is looking to fill in the blanks with allowable potencies for vitamins and minerals that include such absurdly low doses as just 225 mg for vitamin C, 4 mg for beta carotene, 5 mcg for vitamin D, 1.3 mg for B-1, and others which are equally unscientific.
It is especially likely that these numbers will become the "Maximum Safe Permitted Levels" under CODEX because the Chairman of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Use is Dr.Rolf Grossklaus, who ALSO chairs the German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment which GENERATED these unscientific numbers, and he has a long history of running his committee in a heavy handed, dictatorial manner, more like a JUDGE than as an impartial moderator. This is documented by Scott Tips, legal counsel to the National Health Federation, the longest running health freedom organization in America which has covered every CCNFSDU meeting in Germany since 1996.
(See A MEETING OF TWO http://www.thenhf.com/codex_25.htm and additional archived articles at http://www.thenhf.com/codex.html
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 such as when the WTO forced us to change our Tax laws to suit the EU: BOWING & SCRAPING BEFORE THE WTO http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2005/tst022805.htm
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. Congressman Paul expressed these concerns about CAFTA yesterday in this announcement: http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2005/tst071805.htm 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. http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7304 Frankly, I don't like those odds, and am not willing to take any chances.
Given that in 1994 dietary supplement consumers flooded congress with more mail than they've ever received in their HISTORY, including more mail than they received regarding the Vietnam War, if I were a fence sitter on this issue, I'd be very concerned about the prospect of my name ending up on the black list that will appear on these websites if I voted to pass CAFTA: http://www.iahf.com, http://www.coalitionforhealthfreedom.com, http://www.nationalhealthfreedom.org/, http://www.thenhf.com, http://www.apma.net/aahf/default.asp, http://www.lef.org, and http://www.alliance-natural-health.org
