FW: (URGENT!) Contact House of Representatives to stop CODEX (CAFTA)

[Guest guest]

Hi All-

Well, even if you’re not a

“Dietary Supplement Freedom Fighter,” it’s worth defeating

CAFTA. It will force the US to “harmonize” with the CODEX food standards through

our agreements in the World Trade Organization, causing us to lose access to

most dietary supplements. The ones we will have left will be of forms and

potencies that are virtually worthless. We will be forced to comply or face

crippling trade sanctions. CAFTA will basically make the 1994 DSHEA dietary

supplement law unenforceable. Looks to me like the international trade

agreements are undermining our US sovereignty.

 

CAFTA will give corporations more

availability of cheap labor markets, causing the loss of yet more American

jobs. The Central American countries will probably be able to buy our agricultural

products at a lower price than those they now produce in their own countries

since our farmers are subsidized by the US government. Sounds good for balance of trade and all that, but our

subsidized produce has the potential to ruin the Central American

countries’ economies due to the fact that agriculture is a large part of

their economies. This very scenario has already happened on other countries.

 

All in all, a win for big corporations,

especially pharmaceutical companies, and a big LOSE for average Americans,

including the millions that rely on vitamins, minerals, and various other

health supplements, which will mostly go away. Please, if you value access to

safe, effective health supplements, or even if you just value United States sovereignty and American jobs, take a minute and contact your US

Congressional Representative. Since the House is on holiday for this week, most

of them will be in their home districts. They will vote on CAFTA (most likely)

on Monday, July 11th, so we have only one week to make this happen.

All the best,

Dana

 

 

 

 

newsletter [newsletter]

Saturday, July 02, 2005 9:26

PM

 

Dietary Supplement Freedom Fighters, wherever you are, there

is only one week to oppose CODEX in the House of Representatives....

 

While everyone is distracted on a Holiday weekend, and away on vacations, and

while vitamin supplement advocates are monitoring events in Rome (CODEX meeting), legislation pending

before Congress (CAFTA) would essentially make CODEX restrictions on vitamin

and mineral supplements binding as US law via the CAFTA trade agreement.

The Senate has already passed CAFTA, so you must contact the US House of Representatives to oppose

CAFTA, in order to stop CODEX..... the National Health Federation has the right

information........

 

NATIONAL

HEALTH

FEDERATION

A NOT-FOR-PROFIT HEALTH ORGANIZATION

July 2, 2005

 

URGENT

ALERT

ACT NOW

YOUR HEALTH FREEDOM IS BEING THREATENED

 

CAFTA VOTE - 1 WEEK AWAY

 

WE MUST NOT ALLOW CAFTA AND

CODEX TO OVERRIDE DSHEA

 

The Central American Free Trade Agreement

(CAFTA) Treaty will require the U.S.,

a member of the World Trade Organization, to revise our food laws and

regulations based on Codex decisions. CAFTA would force harmonization of our

dietary supplements and regulations to international standards, overriding the

DSHEA Act of 1994.

 

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the even-broader Free

Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) are both modelled after the North

American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These agreements are typical

bureaucratic monstrosities of " managed " trade that masquerade as free

trade and would expand NAFTA to include first Central

America and then the rest of the Americas in an

economic " union. " True free trade would take a few pages of

written text to enact ( " eliminate these barriers to trade and these

tariffs, " etc.); all three of these agreements encompass thousands of

pages of bureaucratic textual garbage sprinkled liberally with rules,

regulations, and special-interest benefits.

 

Buried in the language of CAFTA is Section 6 that would require of all its

members that they form a Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) committee for the

purpose of insuring ongoing harmonization

under the terms of the SPS Agreement in the World Trade Organization

(WTO). You can find that text at the following website:

http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/CAFTA/CAFTA-DR_Final_Texts/Section_Index.html.

 

If you then look at 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. " (emphasis added)

And as you all know by now, Codex sets the international standards for food

safety including vitamins & minerals.

 

So, CAFTA, which is set for a vote in the House of Representatives when they

reconvene July 11th, 2005, is another

critical link by which health-freedom haters hope to bypass the Dietary

Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 and obligate the United

States and Canada by treaty to

harmonize to the harshly restrictive Codex vitamin-and-mineral standards. They

cannot be allowed to succeed, and we at the NHF completely oppose these two

treaties that would put a knife in the back of our health freedoms.

 

*********************

 

~CAFTA has already passed the Senate

in a 54 to 45 vote on July 1st,

2005.

~Legislators have just recessed

for one week, reconvening July 11,

2005.

~IMPORTANT- For House

consideration, when they return, the Senate Bill 1307 (click here to view bill), ratifying CAFTA, can

be voted on without going to committee. It is on the House calendar and may be

brought up at any time.

*********************

 

ONLY ONE WEEK TO ACT. CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. URGE THEM TO VOTE AGAINST CAFTA NOW.

 

YOUR LETTERS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THE VOTING IN THE HOUSE WILL BE

CLOSE. WE HAVE ONE WEEK TO FLOOD THEIR OFFICES WITH CAFTA OPPOSITION

LETTERS.

 

PLEASE JOIN IN THIS EFFORT AND CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.

 

Contact any member of the House of Representatives via http://www.house.gov/writerep/

 

Click here for Petition Opposition

Letter.

 

P.O. Box 688, Monrovia, CA 91017 USA ~ 1 (626) 357-2181 ~ Fax 1 (626)

303-0642

Website:

www.thenhf.com

E-mail: contact-us