Hello All:
Below is an article by John Rappaport an investigative journalist/researcher who has been following the intended implementation of Codex Alimentarius, an event that could SEVERELY limit Americans' ability to buy and get access to supplements and vitamins. I am posting this for those to understand what the passage of CAFTA means in relation to our dwindling health rights. I myself am writng all of my representitives to vote against CAFTA and Codex. This has already been started in Europe and America is next in their sights.
Logan asked in the toothpaste Thread if we had gotten our colloidal siver generators yet. The link for a unbiased report of what a labaratory found when ansyalzying the output of colloidal silver generators is interesting and a bit dissapointing as I wanted a generator that does actually produce colloidal silver as opposed to ionic silver, a more likely outcome. I continue my search....... The link:
http://www.silver-colloids.com/Reports/reports.html
StarTet
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HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE CODEX AND STOP WORRYING ABOUT MY HEALTH
JULY 15, 2005. On Wednesday night, I appeared on a panel on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. We discussed the implications of the July 4 ruling by Codex on vitamins and minerals.
Since then, I 've received emails asking me to repeat my position.
There is much to say about this, but I'll boil it down for the moment.
Codex Guidelines are suggestions and recommendations and they are labeled "optional." However, the World Trade Organization (WTO) decided, some time ago, to use these guidelines as hard and fast rules that bind all 172 WTO-member nations, including the US.
One can find wording in the GATT Treaty---which is the basis for WTO---that would allow member nations to wriggle out of WTO commands when those commands conflict with domestic laws of WTO-member nations. BUT the rubber meets the road when a member nation files a grievance with WTO, claiming that another member nation is restraining free trade.
At that point, we are into the Twilight Zone. GATT language, no GATT language---everything becomes the kingdom of the WTO grievance panel. They decide. They issue rulings. They punish, they reward.
And their decision, after possible appeal, is final. If a member nation that is found guilty of restraint of free trade refuses to abide by that decision, huge $$ sanctions ensue.
Let me give you a recent example of the eccentricity (to say the least) of the WTO. This past spring, Antigua filed a grievance against the US. Well, it was really against THE STATE OF UTAH. But the US government is the umbrella that, in WTO's eyes, rules Utah.
Antigua is big on Internet gambling. Companies based there run gambling sites. These are legal.
These companies are very, very interested in business from the US.
Utah, however, has a state law against gambling. You may think that law is wonderful or silly, but it is the law.
So Antigua filed a grievance with WTO: Utah can't reject Antigua-based gambling websites.
That's "restraint of free trade."
In this case, we are talking about "the electronic export of gambling business from Antigua into the US."
The WTO panel mulled this over and decided that Antigua was right.
So it issued a ruling. Utah can't reject Antigua gambling sites. Utah would have to change its law.
That's how bizarre and intrusive WTO can get.
How could a grievance based on vitamins and minerals affect US consumers?
Right now, we have a law in the US, called DSHEA, that gives US supplement manufacturers pretty wide latitude in the types and potencies of vitamins and minerals they can sell INSIDE THE US.
Other nations are not so free in their laws. Germany and Brazil, for instance.
So let's say that Germany and Brazil file a grievance with the WTO. Basically, the grievance says this: "We are exporting our supplements into the US. But we are being deprived of income, because we are selling a narrow range of supplements at low potencies. Why? Well, that's what we can manufacture under our own domestic laws. However, when our supplements reach the shores of the United States, they knock up against a fantastic cowboy situation. Hundreds and hundreds of wild and weird supplements at high potencies are being sold inside the US. How can we compete? We estimate we are each losing $200 million a year in sales. If the US had supplement laws that harmonized with our own, we could compete. Help us."
Now, the WTO panel does a Utah:
"Yes, we agree. This is outrageous. The US must harmonize its supplement law to fall in line with the laws of countries like Germany and Brazil. In fact, a risk assessment done by CODEX (this hasn't actually been done yet) states a range of acceptable supplements and acceptable potencies, and the US is grossly exceeding these standards. So the US has to gut DSHEA and put in a new harmonized law, or it will have to pay a total of $400 million a year to Brazil and Germany until it DOES put in a new and better law."
Couldn't happen? Wouldn't happen? Too crazy to happen?
Ask the people of Utah. They are guilty of being electronic-gambling criminals, as far as WTO is concerned.
Meanwhile, the FDA loves Codex and looks forward to influencing Codex's upcoming risk assesment of vitamins and minerals. The FDA would love to destroy DSHEA and institute new draconian supplement law in the US.
Codex, you have to understand, in its guidelines, made a few key choices. For example, it decided that supplements are basically for SUPPLEMENTATION OF DAILY DIET and not for PREVENTION OF CHRONIC DISEASES. It decided, on the issue of safe upper limits for supplements (potencies) to forget RDAs (recommended daily allowances or doses) and instead go for SCIENTIFICALLY ESTABLISHED RISK ASSESSMENT. This last fork in the road means that some organization (not yet chosen) will study supplements and put out a report that claims to know the safe upper limits of potencies. I think you can see where these two basic choices are heading.
These choices will impact how WTO, in turn, rules on grievances member nations file against, say, the US.
Is the roof going to cave in tomorrow? No.
Is all this a major step on the road toward perdition? Yes.
Is the game over? No.
Has the struggle moved to a new level? Yes.
Can an international body (WTO) exercise control over US domestic laws? Yes.
Do we need to get out of WTO? Yes.
Is there another phase of WTO-type control that is waiting in the wings? Yes.
Is it called CAFTA (Central American Free Trade treaty)? Yes.
Has it passed the US Senate? Yes.
Has it passed the House? Not yet. The White House is working behind the scenes to twist arms and obtain the last few votes needed.
Does CAFTA contain language that would put further pressure on the US to harmonize its supplement law with the laws of other nations where there are far more restrictions on the sale of supplements? Yes.
Article 3 of CAFTA: "Member nations shall base their food safety [supplement safety included] measures on international [Codex] standards, guidelines or recommendations."
Is there also is a bill in the US Congress now that would rip apart the DSHEA law? Yes. HR 3156.
3156 establishes a similar risk-analysis assessment that Codex decreed needed to be done. 3156 states that even a relatively small risk of adverse health effects could be grounds for outlawing a supplement, unless "sufficient benefit" exists. These would be judgments, of course, for some "science" panel to make. 3156 states that the FDA can ban any supplement even though "there are uncertainties" as to the level of potency where the risk would occur.
Other enemies of supplements in the US are urging further gutting of DSHEA. Supplement manufacturers would have to prove that their supplements are safe, whereas under DSHEA, this burden falls on the government, because THE TRACK RECORD OF SUPPLEMENT SAFETY HAS BEEN EXTRAORDINARY.
Supplement manufacturers would have to somehow keep records of adverse health events. This is treating supplements like drugs. Unlike supplements, we know that medical drugs approved by the FDA kill at least 100,000 people in the US every year.
Codex is one vector in the squeeze play that is threatening health all over the world.
JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com
