CAFTA and Dietary Supplements

[Guest guest]

CAFTA and Dietary Supplements

 

by Rep. Ron Paul, MD

by Rep. Ron Paul, MD

 

 

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Central American

Free Trade Agreement in the next two weeks, and one little-known provision

of the agreement desperately needs to be exposed to public view. CAFTA, like

the World Trade Organization, may serve as a forum for restricting or even

banning dietary supplements in the U.S.

 

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, organized by the United Nations in the

1960s, is charged with " harmonizing " food and supplement rules between all

nations of the world. Under Codex rules, even basic vitamins and minerals

require a doctor's prescription. The European Union already has adopted

Codex-type regulations, regulations that will be in effect across Europe

later this year. This raises concerns that the Europeans will challenge our

relatively open market for health supplements in a WTO forum. This is hardly

far-fetched, as Congress already has cravenly changed our tax laws to comply

with a WTO order.

 

Like WTO, CAFTA increases the possibility that Codex regulations will be

imposed on the American public. Section 6 of CAFTA discusses Codex as a

regulatory standard for nations that join the agreement. If CAFTA has

nothing to do with dietary supplements, as CAFTA supporters claim, why in

the world does it specifically mention Codex?

 

Unquestionably there has been a slow but sustained effort to regulate

dietary supplements on an international level. WTO and CAFTA are part of

this effort. Passage of CAFTA does not mean your supplements will be

outlawed immediately, but it will mean that another international trade body

will have a say over whether American supplement regulations meet

international standards. And make no mistake about it, those international

standards are moving steadily toward the Codex regime and its draconian

restrictions on health freedom. So the question is this: Does CAFTA, with

its link to Codex, make it more likely or less likely that someday you will

need a doctor's prescription to buy even simple supplements like Vitamin C?

The answer is clear. CAFTA means less freedom for you, and more control for

bureaucrats who do not answer to American voters.

 

Pharmaceutical companies have spent billions of dollars trying to get

Washington to regulate your dietary supplements like European governments

do. So far, that effort has failed in America, in part because of a 1994 law

called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. Big Pharma and the

medical establishment hate this Act, because it allows consumers some

measure of freedom to buy the supplements they want. Americans like this

freedom, however - especially the health conscious Baby Boomers.

 

This is why the drug companies support WTO and CAFTA. They see international

trade agreements as a way to do an end run around American law and restrict

supplements through international regulations.

 

The largely government-run health care establishment, including the

nominally private pharmaceutical companies, want government to control the

dietary supplement industry - so that only they can manufacture and

distribute supplements. If that happens, as it already is happening in

Europe, the supplements you now take will be available only by prescription

and at a much higher cost - if they are available at all. This alone is

sufficient reason for Congress to oppose the unconstitutional,

sovereignty-destroying CAFTA bill.

 

July 19, 2005

 

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

 

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