The Only Way To Stop CODEX Harmonization Is To Stop CAFTA--Now!!

[Guest guest]

WHAT IS CODEX?

http://www.coalitionforhealthfreedom.org/whatiscodex.html

http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/index.cfm?action=news & ID=171

 

 

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There is little doubt that CODEX will be ratified (read NO DOUBT)

 

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We can't assume they won't ratify the standard, and if they do, and CAFTA goes thru, we'll be set up like bowling pins via Article 3 of the SPS Agreement which is in CAFTA and FTAA and which 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."John Hammel

IAHF

 

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(THIS INCLUDES CANADA---READ CANADIAN INFO AT BOTTOM OF THE PAGE)

 

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http://www.thelawloft.com/Freedom/050125_us_law.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Who Says Whatever Happens at Codex

Does Not Affect US Law and

Why Do They Say It?

 

A journalist looks back to help you look forward

 

by Suzanne Harris, J.D.

2005 The Law Loft

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was struck recently by an article appearing in the NNFA Today magazine, Volume 18, No.11 entitled "International Products Regulation Q & A: What Affect do They Really Have on the U.S.?" While some parts of the article were good, a number of the questions and answers struck a discordant note including the following:

 

 

 

"However, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture official, the United States has never changed its laws or regulations to conform to any standards or guidelines adopted at Codex. He noted further that the United States does not, as a matter of practice, officially accept, accept in part, accept free distribution, or accept standards or guidelines adopted by the Codex Commission. Therefore, it doesn't appear that any changes to U.S. law or regulations would likely occur as a result of any adoption by the Commission of the vitamin and food supplement guidelines." [emphasis added]

 

 

It was the therefore that really bothered me. If NNFA asked that unnamed bureaucrat about acceptance of guidelines, then it really asked the wrong question. The U.S. generally doesn't accept Codex guidelines nor do other countries. The Codex Secretariat hasn't received a notice of acceptance in the last 10 years. The better question is whether Codex standards and guidelines act as a template or containment within which countries must then write their laws and regulations or face enormous political and legal pressure. To this latter question the answer is clearly yes — write laws within the acceptable field set forth by the applicable Codex standard or guideline or be prepared to accept the consequences, including the risk of cross-sector trade sanctions if you don't.

Why are Codex guidelines and standards a containment, a template, within which nations must then operate or face a host of nasty consequences? Partly because since the creation of the World Trade Organization and its internal operating agreements, every member nation knows that its laws and regulations can become the object of a WTO ruling and the object of political pressure to harmonize. Back in 1997, I watched as the realization dawned on Codex delegates that they had entered into a new era of food law harmoninzation.Too late to cry now was the essence of the message delivered to them by the counsel from WTO.

A few months later, I was dining in Washington with another group of food regulators fresh with the kind of know-it-all arrogance that strikes people who have been around the block at Codex once or twice, and I said: "You know, it's really fascinating to watch how regulations that affect us here at home start out at international meetings."

"No, they don't," intoned a voice from the other end of the table. "They start with decisions by industry. I was at a trade meeting where a new form of packaging was unveiled. Not too long thereafter, the same idea was presented at Codex. That's the way things are done now. And you would do it that way too. Why run around from country to country seeking the regulations you want when you can do it all in one shot at Codex?" The speaker, whom I have paraphrased, was a bureaucrat from the Department of Agriculture.

Was he right? Is Codex the place where the templates for new world-wide regulations are written after business interests have agreed to them?

Through all the years of meetings I have attended since, the answer has come through loud and clear. Yes, he was right, but the pathways can be complex. It works like this: big business and bureaucrats get together and agree on how to write new international regulations in private meetings. When they agree, their agreements then surface as working projects, draft guidelines, or proposals at Codex. In some cases the pathway is very, very clear. In others it is not. In the dietary supplements case, a series of meetings were held by business and bureaucrats who agreed on some issues, went forward on those at Codex, and then agreed on others now contained in the draft guideline on vitamin and mineral supplements now at Step 8.

The real key to how things work at Codex is contained in the phrase in Article 1 of the Statutes of the Codex Alimentarius Commission where it says: the purpose is - "(b) promoting the coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non governmental organizations;" What is so significant about this phrase are the words promoting the coordination of ... international governmental and non governmental ... What that means in the real world is taking the work of international industrial lobbying groups and then cloaking that work with legitimacy and now real binding legal and political force by feeding their agreements through Codex, an international governmental entity. The more jaded among you will say, 'Well, how is that any different from the way things have worked in Washington for decades?' The answer is it is different because decisions are made by bureaucrats and the actions are

offshore. With a truly domestic piece of legislation you have a chance of overcoming industrial pressure with grassroots pressure on the people you elected. With an international guideline, by the time it's done you have almost no chance to win. You can't bring pressure to bear in all the right places. The real damage was done long ago and long before you felt it.

Would some bureaucrat in Washington deliberately mislead anybody? You bet.

Again and again in a variety of contexts, I have heard bureaucrats tell unwary consumers and reporters tall tales filled with half truths. At the end of a meeting in Washington last Fall, a Washington-based attendee slipped me his card and said "If you ever get a straight answer out of these folks let me know."

When I started to catch on to the game myself, I began changing the way I prepared for meetings and the way I asked questions. I hunted for evidence of these meetings and premised my questions accordingly. The results were startling. Bureaucrats knew months, sometimes years ahead, what was going to happen next, and they told me. I knew, for example, over two years ago that the German risk assessment for vitamins and minerals was being built — long before others 'discovered' it in January.

But they do still try to con you even if you know the game. More recently in Europe an EU bureaucrat I was interviewing said, "Of course, it is different for the FDA. They can't regulate food supplements the way we do because of DSHEA."

"Did someone tell you that?" I replied. "You have been misinformed. DSHEA contains a huge escape clause 'substantial or unreasonable risk of ... ' " I didn't get to finish my sentence. He did it for me, ' ... of illness or injury.' "You could drive a whole herd of camels through that language. Do you know any bureaucrat who wouldn't?" I said. A huge grin covered his face like a Cheshire cat smile. I had caught him and he knew it.

Why aren't they telling the truth and the whole truth? Because it is a truth they do not want you to hear.

No one in this game internationally or in Washington wants you to know that the upcoming Codex guideline will circumscribe what Congress does. It's a little game they all play now — decide offshore what to do, write a standard or guideline, tell the elected representatives: find a problem at home, launch a PR campaign, pretend you are writing new legislation to fix the problem.

Indeed, the concept of gamesmanship is now so imbedded in the bureaucratic mind that it is hard to shake out even when half truths won't work. I saw another real life demonstration of this mentality when a consultant told a room full of bureaucrats, "Half truths won't work here. They know what you are doing." The assembled bureaucrats reacted by suggesting that yet another study on how to 'disinform' the public needed to be done. A meeting organizer expressed disappointment that I was there to witness this. "We thought nobody from the press would come. We had buried the notice so deep in our website," he commented.

What are they really doing? Building blocks for global regulations through 'consensus.'

The name of the game here is convergence and harmonization, to build regulations and laws in each country that fit together with those written in other countries and at places like Codex so that trade (with a hugely expanded definition of trade) moves seamlessly. The mantra of the hour is 'approved once, accepted everywhere.'

Can this be overcome? Is it too late? No, not if just the right steps are taken right now. Otherwise, we can all look forward to a harder fight with less chance of success in Washington in the future.

 

 

 

 

2005, The Law Loft. All rights reserved. No extract, portion or part of this material may be reproduced without the express written permission of The Law Loft. For permission to reproduce this article in whole or in part, contact The Law Loft, thelawloft or write to us at The Law Loft, at KCXL 1140AM, 310 South La Frenz, Liberty, Missouri 64068.

 

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http://www.coalitionforhealthfreedom.org/action.html

Contact Congress today use these links

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call your Representatives' office (recommended) Locate your House Representatives or call 1-202-224-3121 weekdaysorEmail your Representative with 2 clicks send a letter you can edit and read more on CAFTAFor extra impact - do you or your friends live here?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAFTA - BAD for jobs, small businesses, health stores, health freedom read on.. In the fine print the US is being signed up to global regulations that override US supplement laws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What has the Central American "Free Trade" Agreement got to do with my health store? Why Stop CAFTA?CAFTA contains fine print to let strict new global food laws (Codex) into America.This is NOT "Free Trade"!Thousands of safe products could be banned in the USA! Today in Germany, zinc is $54 a bottle. Woman arrested in France for selling 500mg of vitamin C! UK health consumers, even after submitting over a million signatures on petitions, realized they “woke up” too late. CAFTA is the latest treaty carving new trade areas in the world, moving us faster toward the FTAA – FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS – an area like the European Union, here - in North and South America. Our borders are

becoming irrelevant! Thanks to NAFTA, CAFTA, and next the FTAA! These agreements are drawn up by big businesses and bureaucrats. They already have a track record of destroying protections for small businesses (which create the most jobs), labor, the environment, - and now our health choices. Very low dosage limits are already law in many countries, and this is gradually working it’s way across the globe. There are heavy restrictions on almost all supplements in Europe, Canada and Australia, where many are regulated as drugs. And they cost from five to ten times what it cost before the restrictions were implemented a few years ago. Herbals will not be available. Read "Who Says Whatever Happens at Codex Doesn't Affect US Law and Why Do They Say It?" at The Law Loft. Even if you are not opposed to CAFTA for other reasons, please call

Congress to protest the fact that it makes US supplements vulnerable. There is a better way to do globalization. If they can't do it without threatening our health freedom, then we must scrap the these international rules and start over. You might consider this article by Public Citizen, that shows how the numbers from the previous treaty, NAFTA, have been distorted to hide the costs of CAFTA: "Fool Me Twice?" Unless you and I act NOW to stop these treaties – virtually irreversible once passed - products could start disappearing from U.S. shelves over time, smaller cutting-edge companies could be driven out of business, many nutrients and new breakthroughs could become illegal or super expensive. If we allow these irreversible treaties now, it won’t matter how much we protest later! In the fine print, CAFTA makes the US subject

to the "SPS Agreement": another treaty to adopt world food standards (called Codex). Article 3 of SPS 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.” This makes the supposedly “voluntary” Codex standard for vitamins and minerals MANDATORY for all nations who are members of the World Trade Organization. Since these standards are being adopted everywhere these "free trade" areas exist, there are also many other economic reasons US supplements will be restricted. Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, trade unions, citizen advocacy groups, and other countries, are part of a great opposition to CAFTA. This treaty is in trouble! But it could still pass… as there’s a big campaign to lobby Congress this week to push it through! There are many Representatives, especially Republicans, who have not yet made up their mind.

Every call, fax and email counts! - Let's show them this time they've gone one step too far. Make your access to health freedom a reason CAFTA fails!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learn more on CODEX/CAFTA: FREE CONFERENCE CALLS: Wed, Thurs, 9 pm EST hosted by Nancy Lee Bentley 712-824-4100, then enter CODEXNO# (2633966#) Ask for meetings in your area with: Nancy Lee Bentley for The Food Circle

 

 

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CODEX AND CANADA

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2005/03/10/health_canada_bull_on_codex.htm

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2005/01/24/life_under_codex.htm

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