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: 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/ For persons who do not have Internet access you may contact the House of Representatives switchboard at 1 (202) 224-3121. This will direct you to your representative as long as you have your full zip code, including the additional four digits that the post office places on the end, which indicates the representative district. Sample Petition Opposition Letter as follows: CAFTA Letter     The Honorable (Congressperson Full Name) Address Address                                       Re:  CAFTA VOTE - URGENT   Dear Representative (Last Name):               I am writing to urge you to vote against the Central American Free Trade Act (CAFTA).               While you and your colleagues may believe that CAFTA will promote regional trade, I do not support CAFTA because it contains (in Section 6) stipulations that would require the United States, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to revise our food laws and regulations, based on decisions made by another WTO tribunal, the Codex Alimentarius (International Food Code) Commission, or Codex.  The WTO recognizes Codex standards as a source of international regulation for WTO members.  The WTO can and has sanctioned nations for not following Codex guidelines.               The passage of CAFTA would force the “harmonization” of our dietary-supplement laws and regulations to international standards, as established by the supranational Codex Commission.  Doing so would drastically infringe on the quality of dietary supplements and access to supplements that people like me are used to.  The passage of CAFTA could effectively override the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994.  CAFTA would devastate our health freedom of choice, destroy thousands of small businesses in the health foods and dietary supplement fields, and negatively impact the 150 million regular consumers of dietary supplements like myself.               Any treaty that leads to the banning of thousands of safe products cannot be described as "free trade.”  There are better ways to globalize.  If this cannot be done without threatening my basic right to have access to nutritional choices, then we should scrap CAFTA and start over.  I appreciate your consideration of my views and look forward to knowing what your position is on this legislation.                                                                             Sincerely,                                                                            ____________________________     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@thenhf.com