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CAFTA Update - Bush Stumps Today - Bill Clarification
by Philip Beckwith
July 21, 2005
President Bush is on the stump and is to make a speech on CAFTA today.
As of today they may be 5 - 15 votes short and are hoping to change this
with some concessions in a vote on China early next week. The last day for a
vote next week before the August recess would be July 28th. It could come
anytime they feel they have the votes. They still do not, more time for
calls and the Codex issue to register, especially if it can get
pushed beyond August.
"Codex" IS
directly referred to in the CAFTA treaty.
http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/CAFTA/CAFTA-DR_Final_Texts/asset_upload_file893_3923.pdf
Chapter
Six
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
Objectives
Article
6.3: Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Matters
"6. The
Committee shall provide a forum for:
…
(d) consulting on issues, positions, and agendas for meetings of the
WTO
SPS
Committee,
the various
Codex
committees (including the
Codex
Alimentarius Commission),
the
International Plant Protection Convention,
the
International Office of Epizootics,
and other international and regional fora on food safety and human,
animal, and plant health;"
We must question the pro-CAFTA lobby who claim the treaty has nothing to
do with Codex, why then is Codex mentioned directly in the
Agreement, over and above the SPS Agreement referring to harmonization to
international guidelines? These are obligations and can
evolve to increasing entanglements due to legal and economic pressure.
We were also just warned that the administration will try to go for broke
for a vote on Wednesday or Thursday next week if they possibly can, as
they realize that August will give more time for the rising opposition to
build. So we should plan accordingly.
CAFTA vote summary
Senate Bill S.1307 is held at the desk of the House of Representatives.
This is the CAFTA bill that will be voted on in the House.
This will be instead of the (identical) House bill H.R.3045.
(I'm grateful to Lee Bechtel, lobbyist to AAHF and NHF for this
distinction.)
This is the Implementation Act (of the Dominican Republic-Central
America-United States Free Trade Agreement).
Read the Agreement itself, not the Act, to find the sections of
concern to U.S. consumers of dietary supplements. Section 6 and Section 7,
deepen the U.S. commitment to the WTO SPS and TBT agreements, increasing
the U.S. vulnerability to entanglement in Codex regulations, especially
under SPS Article 3.
CAFTA-DR Agreement:
http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/CAFTA/CAFTA-DR_Final_Texts/Section_Index.html
Within 30 days of the treaty passing, an inter-governmental committee is
required to convene and to work to assist the seven governments in
carrying out their obligations under the WTO SPS Agreement. The
word harmonization does not occur in CAFTA Section 6 but in the SPS
Agreement itself, Section 3: "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." The WTO has adopted the Codex Guidelines as their
worldwide standards. There are numerous economic and legal coercions
whereby the domestic U.S. market will be affected.
The FDA is the branch of the U.S. government directly involved with Codex,
and they have repeatedly said they support Codex, wish to harmonize the
U.S. guidelines to it, and even support the current science of Risk
Assessment to determine the "safe" upper limits for supplements.
In doing so they are continuing to ignore the FDA Modernization Act of
1997 which exempted dietary supplements from the harmonization section
which impacts everything else the FDA regulates.
This is with the support of the largest vitamin companies who don't care
about consumers. They have actively pushed for the Codex Guidelines and
want one set of regulations for the world so they can have single product
lines with world access. If they can push out smaller companies by having
the regulatory bar raised, this increases their market share, and allows
them to charge more for less in a bottle. The effectiveness of their
products makes no difference to them.
The first thing the pharmaceutical industry had to do in order to control
the supplement industry was buy many of the supplement companies. The
necessity to control the supplement Trade Associations and silence
opposition within the industry has been key to their goals, and so far
they have succeeded spectacularly.
- Howie Randall called me to say the President of Pfizer was on C-Span
this morning, and this may repeat this evening.
- Just now, we need many many more to network and repeatedly call
Congress. Tracking shows the response has been good for an average
domestic health bill, and good for the short length of time this issue has
been pushed - but nowhere near the deluge needed to make this a third
rail issue.
But it’s starting!
Philip Beckwith
www.coalitionforhealthfreedom.org
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