Guest guest Posted July 5, 2005 Report Share Posted July 5, 2005 An effort by big pharmaceutical companies to gradually eliminate their " competition " (vitamins, minerals, herbs and other natural supplements) and create dependence on their companies has just won a huge victory in Germany. " How does this affect me? " you may ask. Well, if the House of Representatives passes CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement - passed in the Senate already), which is up for vote any time after July 11, 2005 (next week), Codex will become the law of the land in the US and we will lose all the hard won advances of the last few years to protect our access to natural supplements (by inclusion of the WTO in the CAFTA agreement, and WTO requires the " globalization " of all natural supplements - ie. elimination and severe restriction). Please take a moment to read the following and contact your Representative (link below) and ask them to vote NO on CAFTA and send it back to be rewritten without forcing us to accept Codex's decisions in this country. Thank you for listening and acting. Urgent Press Release National Health Federation Urgent Alert - CAFTA 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: <A HREF= " http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/CAFTA/CAFTA-DR_Final_Texts/\ Section_Index.html " >http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/CAFTA/CAFTA-D\ R_Final_Texts/Sect ion_Index.html</A>. 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 <A HREF= " http://www.thenhf.com/s1307is.pdf " >Senate Bill 1307 (click here to view bill)</A>, 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 <A HREF= " http://www.house.gov/writerep/ " > http://www.house.gov/writerep/</A> <A HREF= " http://www.thenhf.com/CAFTA%20NHF%20Letter.pdf " >Click here for Petition Opposition Letter.</A> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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