Food supplements targeted by trilateral deal Mexico put in charge as U.S., Canad

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THE NEW WORLD DISORDER

Food supplements targeted by trilateral deal Mexico put in charge as U.S.,

Canada agree to follow

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55028

Posted: April 4, 2007

By Jerome R. Corsi © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission have

agreed to a Trilateral Cooperation Charter with counterparts in Canada and

Mexico under the auspices of NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership

of

North America that will crack down on public access to food supplements and

vitamins.

 

" The purpose is to make an end run around any domestic law that interferes

with food and drug multi-national corporate profits, " John Hammell, a critic of

the plan, told WND.

 

Hammell is the founder of International Advocates for Health Freedom

http://www.nocodexgenocide.com/nocodexgenocide.html , an advocacy group created

to

fight globalists' efforts to regulate alternative health treatments, including

herbs, dietary supplements, and vitamins.

 

A key goal of the Trilateral Cooperation Charter is to limit the public's

access to food supplements and vitamins that are fundamental to many types of

alternative medicine, " Hammell said. " The Trilateral Cooperation Charter is

determined to attack the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 by

moving to merge our food and drug regulations with those of Canada and Mexico,

both of whom are far more restrictive on dietary supplements. "

 

The 1994 law defined dietary supplements as a distinct regulatory category

and created a National Institute of Health Office of Dietary Supplements.

However, Canada and Mexico define dietary supplements as " drugs, " not food

supplements.

 

One of the areas of the new governmental structure that will be dealing with

supplements is a working group called the Mexico-US-Canada Health Fraud Group,

which is, according to the charter, " to maintain a formal framework for

cooperation in combating health fraud and to identify appropriate lines of

communication to ensure a continual exchange of information on compliance and

enforcement activities among the three countries. "

 

The website identifies Mexico as the " lead country " on the MUCH working

group, and Hammell says its real objective can be seen in the hundreds of

" warning

letters " that already have been issued about " fraud. "

 

The MUCH working group defines fraud as " the false, deceptive, or misleading

promotion, advertisement, distribution, sale, possession for sale, or offering

for sale of products or provisions of services, intended for human use, that

are being represented as being made safe and/or effective to diagnose,

prevent, cure, treat, or mitigate disease (or other conditions), to rehabilitate

patients or to provide a beneficial effect on health. "

 

Just 18 months ago, the FDA and the FTC <A

HREF= " http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2005/iss\

ued a press release documenting

that the Trilateral Cooperation Charter had by then engaged in 730 various

compliance actions undertaken by the six involved regulatory agencies in Mexico,

Canada, and the U.S.

 

The press release said those actions were taken against companies " that

promote bogus weight loss products that mislead the public, endanger the public

health, and provide

false hope and defraud citizens of billions of dollars. "

 

The FDA website also lists a number of warning letters, including those

issued in " weight loss fraud, " " sexual enhancement supplements, " and " influenza

scams. " In 2005, for instance, the FDA sent 29 warning letters to businesses

making health-related claims that their dried fruit, fruit juice, and juice

concentrate products could help treat or prevent cancer, heart disease,

arthritis,

and other diseases.

 

The FDA website also documents that the FTC has brought 40 law enforcement

actions, largely as part of " Operation Big Fat Lie, " aimed at stopping the

marketing of bogus weight-loss products and services. Resulting from these

cases,

the FDA reports that U.S. courts have ordered over $188 million in consumer

redress judgments resulting from these law enforcement actions.

 

A similar controversy has raged over the regulation of food supplements in

the European Union. In 2002, the EU issued a controversial Food Supplements

Directive that has been used to regulate food supplements as well as labeling

and

marketing of vitamins and minerals in food supplements.

 

The European Court of Justice already has decided that the EU’s Food

Supplements Directive was valid under European Union law.

 

Now Hammell is arguing the agenda of the Trilateral Cooperation Charter

reflects a globalist desire to advance the interests of the large pharmaceutical

companies by reining in the food supplements industry worldwide.

 

He points to efforts such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission that was

created in 1963 by the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health

Organization, both official groups within the United Nations.

 

" The Codex Alimentarius Commission claims that their main purpose is to

protect the health of consumers and ensure fair trade practices in the food

trade

worldwide, " Hammell explained to WND. " But the truth is that the Codex

Alimentarius Commission is dominated by corporate multi-national interests that

do not

have as their primary concern the health interests of the people they claim

they are in business to protect, not if that health interest is better served

by alternative food supplements and alternative medicine. They have a business

with disease – it's not in their best interests that people be healthy. "

 

Hammell became interested in alternative medicine and food supplement

products some 30 years ago.

 

" My life was saved through a suppressed alternative treatment mode called

orthomolecular medicine which involves the use of dietary supplements. Now, I am

a healthy 49 year-old, but I suffered from a complex syndrome of biochemical

imbalances which the main stream does not understand very well, " he said.

 

Orthomolecular medicine was championed by double-Nobel Laureat Linus Pauling.

The treatment uses natural substances, such as vitamins, minerals, amino

acids, trace elements, and essential fatty acids to treat a variety of diseases

including atherosclerosis, cancer, schizophrenia, and depression.

 

But now, Hammell said, the new charter and other international groups " come

down on any dietary supplement that is purported to cure or alleviate any

disease. "

 

" These international groups think only drugs can cure diseases. Most dietary

supplement companies do not have the funds to put one of their food supplement

products through the drug approval and patent processes. So, therefore,

dietary supplements are by definition fraud to these international groups,

precisely because dietary supplements have not been tested as drugs.

 

Hammell further explained that most dietary supplements are not able to be

patented, so such products are not tested and certified because of the expense

involved.

 

And he said he now is concerned that the FDA and the FTC will utilize the

Trilateral Cooperation Charter to reverse the protection DSHEA extended to food

supplements in the U.S.

 

" Under the Trilateral Cooperation Charter and its overly broad definition of

'health fraud,' " Hammell argues, " any substance, even water becomes a 'drug.'

FDA has a long history of attacking dietary supplements on behalf of the large

corporate pharmaceutical interests the agency traditionally protects. "

 

The formal participants who signed the Trilateral Cooperation Charter on

February 27, 2004 include:

** United States – Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade

Commission;

 

** Canada – Health Products and Food Branch, Canadian Food Inspection Agency,

and the Commissioner of Competition;

 

** Mexico – Federal Commission for the Protection from Sanitary Risks, and

the Federal Office of the Judge Advocate General of Consumers.

 

In July 2006, Hammell filed a FOIA request with the Trilateral Cooperation

Charter but he has yet to receive any documents. Hammell has created a website

seeking signatures on a petition calling for direct Congressional oversight of

the Trilateral Cooperation Charter.

 

Julie Zawisza, FDA Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs,declined to

comment on the various charges by Hammell.