Codex Attack on Vitamins

1 - BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

Introduction—Vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements, along with whole herbs, are invaluable aids in the maintenance of health and the recovery from sickness. The drug industry has long recognized this fact, and wants nutritional supplements and herbs either forbidden or priced out of reach. When those valuable helps are no longer available in our chemically contaminated world, people become sicker and are willing to pay for more drugs, hospital visits, and operations.

In Europe, the drug cartel has succeeded in enacting Codex Alimentarius, which will accomplish that objective on the European continent very soon. Adopted in a secret meeting in the EU (European Union) in November 2004, it is scheduled to be finally voted on in June 2005, with a full European ban taking effect on August 1.

Because the U.S. belongs to the World Trade Organization (WTO), any changes approved in Europe are supposed to automatically become law in America, superseding our own laws. (Some believe we are no longer a sovereign nation.)

Failure to comply with these changes can lead to lawsuits which cannot be won, because they are settled in international courts which are based in Europe.

Codex Alimentarius—"Codex Alimentarius" refers to a set of strict regulations covering all aspects of food. "Codex Alimentarius" is Latin for "Food Rules" or Food Regulations. This collection of food rules in Europe dates back to food standards enacted, between 1897 and 1911, by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were used as a legal reference by the courts as a standard, although the Codex Alimentarius itself had no legal standing.

Modern Codex regulations are prepared by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which (in this report, we will refer to this as "Codex") works with the EU and UN in an attempt to regulate every aspect of food production, packaging, preparation, preservation, and presentation of food "from farm to fork." Codex also attempts to regulate supplemental nutrients and herbs. It even effectively eliminates "organic produce" standards! More on this later. Codex has more than 16,000 pages of working documents.

Some of the changes Codex will impose—Here are several features of Codex:

• The plan is to ban all nutrients, except a few which are high-priced, low-dosage, synthetically made by drug companies, and only available in drugstores by prescription.

• Codex regulations will be binding internationally. Any nation which has entered into trade agreements with the EU will eventually be forced to adopt the Codex or receive heavy trade sanctions until it does.

• All new types of supplements will be banned, unless Codex provides testing and approval. This will be certain to be expensive. Such tests will also be inadequate. A favorite trick of drug and governmental authorities is to test such small doses of the supplement, so that it does not prove of any noticeable value.

• Codex regulations are not based on previous scientific or research findings. Those regulations were developed by eleven persons, appointed by the EU with drug cartel approval.

• Many herbs will also be banned.

Plans to extend Codex to U.S. and worldwide—The United Nations’ Codex Alimentarius Commission, assisted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), views the EU Food Supplements Directive as a basic pattern which should be followed in developing a global trade standard for dietary supplements!

Protests are being ignored—On January 29, urgent messages were sent to Kofi Anan, head of the UN, to extend the deadline for its acceptance of Codex standards. But the pleas were disregarded.

Emergency meetings, by groups opposed to enactment of the Codex in Europe, have been held by concerned groups for several months.

In August 2005, proposed EU legislation is set to ban many of the leading-edge nutritional supplements people currently take for granted. U.S. compliance is likely to follow shortly.

Gigantic cartels are gradually gaining control of every key industry. It is all a sign that we are nearing the end.

What Codex will accomplish—This new regulation will accomplish several objectives: (1) It will pour millions of euros (European equivalent of dollars) into the large pockets of the drug companies. (2) Lacking the vitamins, the maladies of the people will increase and they will need more drugs. (3) Physicians and hospitals will have more patients to treat and profit from.

The international drug cartel—A number of years ago, agreements were quietly entered into by the large drug companies in Germany, America, and Britain. German drug companies would have their government lead out in introducing standards heavily restricting the sale of nutritional supplements, in all nations which enter into trade agreements with the European Union. Germany was selected as the nation to initially push it; since Germans do not tend to use supplements.

Supplemental Guidelines—Work on these Supplement Guidelines was first proposed by the German delegation to the Codex Nutrition Committee in 1990. For several years, work progressed slowly; but the agenda was kept alive by the Germans.

At the same time, Germany also introduced the idea of a European Food Supplements Directive (EFSD). That effort was shelved for some years, after a first round of consultations showed that the field was much too difficult and contentious to regulate by directive. A few years later however—after Codex’s work on supplements had progressed—work restarted on the supplements directive. By that time, both the governments of Britain and Germany were promoting it. (It is believed that their government officials had been paid off.) As it happened, the European Directive was accepted in 2003, two years before the Codex Guidelines.

In shaping the Codex "consensus" on supplements, its German chairman (Rolf Grossklaus) and the representative of the European Union (Basil Mathioudakis) have been more or less openly accused of bending the rules. Objections by some member nations were ignored or overruled. Most of those nations were poor and not in a position to complain very much, lest they be barred from trade relations with Europe.

The result was a text for the Codex Supplements Guidelines that reads remarkably similar to the European Food Directive. Unfortunately no transcripts of those meetings exist. The report prepared by the Codex Secretariat does not include details of proposals and comments. Stenographic records of meetings were never released.

Effects of the 1994 U.S. dietary law—In the United States, after the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) was enacted by Congress, Americans were able to learn the health benefits of vitamins, minerals, and herbs. Prior to that time, no advertising, by supplement manufacturers or sellers, was permitted. As a result, prior to 1994, it was much more difficult for Americans to learn how nutrients could resist and overcome disease. In addition, under this law, Americans were able to purchase them in larger dosages.

As more and more Americans learned how beneficial these nutrients were, by 2002 more nutritional supplements were being sold in the U.S. than drug medications!

Why that law was enacted—That 1994 law (DSHEA) was passed because large numbers of Americans demanded it. Over 2.5 million ordinary citizens wanted to make sure dietary supplements (such as herbs, vitamins, minerals and other food-based supplements) would remain on the over-the-counter market. The movement, to create DSHEA, started when a 1992 FDA task force published a report announcing the FDA’s desire to remove these products from the shelves; since they represent a "disincentive for patented drug research."

Immediately following this announcement, millions of Americans learned about how famed vitamin doctor, Jonathan Wright’s patient-filled medical office in the Northwest was raided that same month by nearly two dozen gun-carrying FDA agents in the name of "regulating supplements." Battering down an unlocked office door, and backed by burly sheriff’s department deputies, the agents lined up staff and patients against the wall. They pulled IVs from patients’ arms in the middle of treatments, confiscated patients’ records, and took the hard drive from the office computer. They did all this because Dr. Jonathan Wright was using nutritional supplements to heal very sick people who could not get help from standard AMA medical care.

As the general public became aware of just how many doctors’ offices, manufacturing companies, distributors, and health-food stores had been assaulted by similar raids, the horror of all this forged a mighty health freedom army that resulted in the unanimous passage of DSHEA.

Provisions of DSHEA—(1) DSHEA made a clear distinction between "food" (which is considered generally safe and did not need to have permission from the FDA to be allowed on the market) and "drugs" (which are invariably toxic, potentially deadly, and in need of lengthy evaluation before they were available to the public under prescription from a doctor).

(2) DSHEA provided the FDA with plenty of legal authority to remove herbs or dietary supplements from the market, providing the agency has plenty of real evidence of real harm to the public. The FDA also has the authority to limit the amount of a supplement to low levels if the agency has plenty of real evidence to prove higher levels are actually dangerous. But, of course, the FDA has been unable to produce such evidence.

Drug cartel determined to get rid of DSHEA—A primary objective of Codex is get rid of that law! Its existence reduces drug sales, keeps people well, and helps restore them to health without expensive medical intervention.

The power behind the throne—Actions by the European Union and the United Nations affect millions of lives. What makes it possible for drug companies to have so much influence at the EU and UN? The answer is rather simple: It is well-known that drug companies make excessive profits by overcharging on medicinal drugs. They claim that the profits are needed for research into new drugs. Yet that research only requires paying the salaries of a number of technicians working in laboratories.

It is well-known that most of the profits are used for advertising and similar projects which will increase sales.

It is the opinion of the present writer that one of those projects is large political contributions to the White House, Congress, as well as immense bribes to EU and UN officials.

Another project is paying immense amounts in advertising dollars to the various news media in drug ads—and then threatening to stop the lucrative advertising if they tell the public what Codex is about to do. Now you can understand why the newspapers, newsmagazines, and news broadcasts do not say a word about the nutritional crisis about to break over our heads.

In 2004, pharmaceutical companies spent over 4 billion dollars on direct consumer advertising. This includes media advertising. In addition, that same year, $785 million was spent on Congressional lobbying.

A joint venture—Codex is a joint venture between the United Nation’s World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization (WHO/FAO), the European Union (EU), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has already stated that, as soon as it is approved (which will occur this summer), it will enforce Codex "guidelines" as the world standard for trade in dietary supplements. This will mean that gradually, pill-by-pill, our access to the dietary supplements we depend on will disappear.

Both the UN and the WHO are mandated to protect the health and welfare of the world’s population; but they obviously shirked on this responsibility, when the Codex decisions were made.

U.S. Codex Office—The U.S. Codex Office is a department in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which works closely with Codex in Europe. If you go to its website, you will be told this:

"The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations."

Earlier Congressional bills—In addition to its cooperation with the German and British drug industry in Codex, the drug industry in America has been hard at work on introducing legislation to greatly restrict vitamins, minerals, and herbs.

In 2003, bills were introduced in Congress which, if enacted, would regulate certain supplements in the U.S. Though the bills died when the 108th Congress ended in December, new versions are thought to be ready for introduction in March or April of this year (2005).

One of those bills would have granted the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate supplements in the same way that it regulates over-the-counter drugs.

The bills would have weaken DSHEA, which gave consumers who use supplements definite protections against government regulations.

(But, if you want to contact your congressman or senator about the bills, you must give the number of the new 2005 bills. Apparently, they have not been introduced yet. With Codex looming on the horizon, perhaps the drug companies will not bother to introduce them.)

The United States Federal Register, Oct. 11, 1995, FDA Policy on Standards stated that "where a relevant international standard exists, or completion is imminent, it will generally be used in preference to a domestic standard."

If this is still the FDA policy, as soon as the Codex Guidelines take effect in Europe in August, the FDA will immediately try to enforce Codex here in America.

There is already activity on Capital Hill to prepare "harmonization" rules, which will lock America into obedience to Codex dietary regulations.

An interconnected, international web of control—Codex Alimentarius is the result of a complex relationship between the United Nations, the World Trade Organization (which has been authorized to enforce Codex Alimentarius through trade sanctions), the World Health Organization (which is actively creating Codex Alimentarius regulations), and our American Food and Drug Administration. These are working closely with industry representatives of the pesticide, chemical, pharmaceutical, dairy, and biotechnology industries.

The origin of Codex—The United Nations established the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 1963, to ensure clean, abundant food for the planet and remove all barriers to international trade of that food. At that time, the World Health Assembly approved the establishment of the Joint FAO/WHO Program on Food Standards, to promulgate standards for ratification by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

First discussed in 1988—The idea of controlling dietary supplements was first openly discussed at the 1988 session of an EU-based Codex committee, the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU). Through the following years, the EU representative to that committee kept presenting the developing Food Supplements Directive ideas as core elements of the Codex Guidlines. The EU representative emphasized the fact that he was speaking on behalf of 15 nations. This large EU block of "votes" in the CCNFSDU and other Codex sessions helped him get what he wanted.

While this was unfolding, the U.S. initially protested the regulation of dietary supplements, but gradually its opposition faded away. The FDA-led U.S. delegation kept compromising—until finally it totally yielded to the plan to essentially eliminate vitamins and herbs.

Throughout all those years, continuing up to the present time, the chairman of that Codex Commission (currently Rolf Grossklaus, M.D.) has always been a German.

Inside official Codex meetings—Health focused consumers, health scientists, physicians, others practicing natural medicine, and other health-focused voices have been absent either physically or functionally from official Codex Alimentarius deliberations. Unofficial observers may not speak during the sessions.

Members of delegations may not discuss standards and Codex-related business with members of other delegations! A small number of trade organizations have participated in Codex Alimentarius committees and the Codex Alimentarius Commission; but their views have often differed sharply from those of health-focused professionals and consumers.

Of course, the real work of such a complex regulatory structure takes place outside of official sessions. And no health advocates have had access to those secret meetings, agreements, and sessions.

How Codex committees operate—The Codex Alimentarius standards are being promulgated by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which was established as a Trade Commission in 1963 by the United Nations (UN). They concern every area having to do with the production, processing, packaging and use of food, herbs, supplements, and food components.

There are about 20 Codex Alimentarius Committees. They prepare and develop guidelines on every aspect of food and present those guidelines to the Codex Alimentarius Commission for ratification, as soon as those guidelines have reached "Step 8" of the guideline development process.

Committees and the Commission operate through poorly defined "consensus"; so actions of those bodies may not represent the will of the delegates or even of the countries they represent. The decision process is not a democratic one.

There have been instances in which delegates have been bodily removed by security guards at the request of the chairman, if they persisted in seeking discussion after the chairman has declared a matter closed! The various governments tolerate this, in the hope that the resulting standards will increase profitable trade between the nations.

Trade organizations with strong publicly documented ties to the pharmaceutical, chemical, and agricultural industries have a very influential voice at these meetings.

There has been no effective representation from health advocates, nutritional supplement manufacturers, natural health-care professionals, or other non-pharmaceutically oriented group at the Codex Alimentarius Commission meetings. The Commission meets every two years, always offshore (Rome, Bonn, Paris, etc.), and never in the United States.

The U.S. representatives to the Commission have well-documented, unwholesome connections to the very industries that stand to profit and benefit from the wholesale implementation of the Codex standards.

Consumers have virtually no say at all; and consumers are the ones who are going to be affected by all the decisions that the Codex Alimentarius Commission makes.

The governments of both India and South Africa have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the foolish nutritional theories of Codex and the restriction of nutrients and herbs. But they have been regularly overrun, during meetings, by "consensus" tactics which do not allow full discussion or debate on these crucial issues.

Standards on everything—Codex sets international standards for everything from parmesan cheese to sweet cassava, canned sardines to chicken meat, echinacea to rice. Each standard is ratified after reaching "Step 8" in Committee.

The U.S. signed the GATT, SPS, and TBT—The United States is now locked in, because of certain treaties it earlier signed to join GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Teriffs). More recently, the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) were approved in Europe. They are subsections of GATT. These are all international treaty agreements.

As of July 1, 2005, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is working its way through Congress; it has just been approved by a House panel and the Senate Finance Committee (June 29). There are nations in Central or South America which could use the SPS and TBT provisions in CAFTA to pressure the U.S. to harmonize with the Codex Guidelines.

When Codex became mandatory—Codex standards and guidelines were voluntary; that is, each nation could obey or disobey them. But that changed when the various nations signed new treaties at the Uruguay Round of GATT; at which time the WTO [World Trade Organization] came into existence. Because of what we signed at Uruguay, we are required to obey the WTO.

The WTO has enforcement power through a new international court, the Dispute Settlement Body, which does not follow our rules of evidence.

WTO placed corporations over nations—The WTO has put the mechanisms in place to override any national law that interferes with multinational corporate profits. That is why Congressman Ron Paul tried to remove us from the WTO in 2000 via House Joint Resolution 90. But Congress failed to enact it.

The NGOs—Many people, from all over the world, protested at the non-governmental organization (NGO) meetings in Seattle, in 1999, and Quebec City in 2001. They were already suffering from the dietary, ecological, trade, fisheries, and other problems imposed through UN trade agreements, which left them the poorer. The "NGOs" are the big business cartels.

Codex is based neither on science nor democracy. Unelected government officials, working in cooperation with industry and trade interests, make decisions which become domestic and international standards, when enacted as law by the member states of the WTO.

The U.S. has already had to yield to WTO—Several WTO rulings have gone against U.S. law, forcing Congress to change our law under threat of cross-sector trade sanctions against broad sectors of our economy. The most recent and publicized of these was the situation regarding our steel industry and tariffs. If they can force the U.S. to change policy over such a vital national interest as our steel industry, the dietary and herbal supplement industry will be easy to eliminate.

Every UN member nation involved—When the Codex rules for dietary supplements become binding, the escape clause within GATT that permits a nation to set its own standards—will be overruled. This will apply to all member countries of the UN. Any nation that does not accept and apply these new standards will be heavily fined by the World Trade Organization, creating the potential for crippling entire sectors of that nation’s economy.

The primary targets were Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—which are the largest purchasers of drugs. (As of this writing, July 2005, all of the above-named nations have submitted to Codex, except the U.S.)

The Codex ban on nutrients will ultimately include every UN member nation. But, instead of calling it a "ban," the Codex Commission calls it a "positive list" of nutritional directives. ("Positive" means a few very low-dosage vitamins and herbs are included, and everything else is banned.)

The July 4-9, 2005, meeting—The new Codex Alimentarius, adopted in a secret meeting in Europe in November 2004, is scheduled to be voted on at a meeting to be held July 4-9, 2005, in Rome. If approved, the ban on nutrients will begin in Europe on August 1, 2005.

At that time, there will be final approval of new worldwide vitamin guidelines that are expected to restrict availability of nutrient-containing supplements to consumers the world over. The text of the guidelines was finalized last November in Germany, by the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses.

These types of international regulations are elaborated without public input and even without the consent of national parliaments of the participating countries.

Each country entrusts its vote to one person which will eventually determine national laws as well, the head of the national Codex delegation. And Codex delegations are typically headed by relatively low-level administrative employees of national health ministries.

So we are having what amounts to international laws being developed over the heads of and without input from national legislative authorities, let alone the public that will face the consequences. Democratic procedure has been officially abolished in the name of globalizing the economy and "removing barriers to trade.

Theoretically, because the United States belongs to the World Trade Organization (WTO), any changes approved in Europe automatically become law in the United States, superseding our own laws; because, as mentioned earlier, treaties entered into by the U.S. take precedence over applicable U.S. laws. As you can see, we are no longer a sovereign nation. But there can be delays, as will be discussed later.

"Harmonization"—or else. Before final ratification of the Vitamin and Mineral Guidelines occurs in Rome on July 4-9, 2005, "harmonization" by the U.S. is "voluntary"; but it can be enforced by WTO trade sanctions. After ratification, compliance with Codex will be mandatory; and enforcement by WTO trade sanctions is a powerful threat on its own to make sure that it is complied with properly. If that were not bad enough, the SPSA requires domestic compliance with ratified standards. That means that the U.S. will have to bring its laws and standards down to those of Codex and keep them there!

Said to be impossible to fight the ban—If the U.S. fails to comply with these changes, the WTO will initiate lawsuits against our government. Our attorneys will not be able to win those cases in court—because they are settled in an international court in Europe which cares nothing about U.S. laws.

Coalition against Codex—A meeting of a group opposed to Codex (the American Association for Health Freedom) met in Washington on April 22-23, 2005, in order to lay plans for keeping America from submitting to the ban. But whether this coalition of several dozen organizations will accomplish anything is not known at this time.

Official AMA position—The American Medical Association (AMA) and World Medical Association (WMA) have gone on record as not favoring the Codex ban. But whether or not that is a sincere position is not clear. There is no doubt that neither organization has done much, if anything, to openly oppose Codex in the halls of Congress or in Europe.

Why the July meeting is necessary—Paul Lasok, QC, an attorney that is one of the world’s leading experts on European Union law, presented the case for preserving consumers’ freedom of access to dietary supplements. On January 25, 2005, in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, Lasok argued on behalf of the UK-based Alliance for Natural Health.

At issue was the so-called "positive list" of nutrient ingredients, in the Food Supplements Directive, which would be permitted to be included in the manufacture of dietary supplements. That "list" had excluded nearly all vitamins and herbs!

In June, the court issued a verdict favorable to Codex, permitting the "Positive List" to eliminate 75 percent of the forms of vitamins and minerals currently used in the EU market.

The Codex Commission had to await the outcome of that lawsuit in the Court of Justice, before it could grant final approval to the Food Supplements Directive at the July 4-9 meeting in Rome.

U.S. leaning toward approval—On June 9, 2005, the U.S. Codex Office held a public meeting to discuss agenda items coming before the July Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome. Informal inquiries indicated that the preliminary U.S. position on the Guidelines was to support finalization.

Just issued—At the end of June, the U.S. Delegation to Codex issued a formally written statement to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, that the United States, during the July 4-9, 2005, meeting in Rome, will support compulsory Codex rules created by this international organization which directly overrule U.S. law regarding access to vitamins. That does not mean automatic acceptance by the U.S. Senate or Congress, but it is not far from it.

We have a controlled (or paid off) press—This Codex crisis is the clearest proof the present writer has ever seen that it is true that we have a "controlled press" in America! There is absolutely no mention of the fact that America is hurtling toward the total loss of vitamin and herbal supplementation in ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, BBC, or the newspapers and newsmagazines! They are silenced by their desire to not offend the drug companies which provide them with millions of dollars in drug ads.

Harm in harmonization—Through the process, called "harmonization," our nation, our legislators in Washington will be required to bring America into submission to Codex requirements—regulating international trade, distribution, and processing of food, herbs, and nutrients. Those proposed standards will be extremely detrimental to the environment, your health freedom, your health and your access to clean and unadulterated food.

Congress or Senate—It is not clear whether the entire Congress has to approve this "harmonization" or if only the Senate will do that. Because Codex is under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the GATT agreement, Codex is actually part of our WTO and GATT agreements. The U.S. Constitution requires that only the Senate enter into treaties with foreign powers. But the WTO is a trade agreement, not a treaty. At the present time, CAFTA, a trade agreement with Central America, is working its way through both houses of Congress.

Phase-in period—Once Codex is adopted by a nation via "harmonization" (forced acceptance) or through the effects of the SPSA, there is a "phase-in period" during which the administrative structure of implementation is established according to a strict timetable.

Can this Codex attack be stopped?—There is no certainty about this. An English lawyer, named Anderson, considered to be a very capable attorney in that nation, has agreed to fight the Codex in court because he thinks he can win.

You should contact your Congressmen and Senators, and tell them how you think they should vote. It is imperative that concerned natural health consumers (and their patients, friends, relatives, suppliers, people who shop in health-food stores and use clean food and therapeutic doses of nutritional supplements, etc.) become fully activated to stop Codex from being enacted in the United States.

Codex based on Napoleonic Code—It is important to note that Codex Alimentarius operates under the Napoleonic legal code, under which anything not explicitly permitted is forbidden!

In contrast to the Napoleonic legal code, the U.S. operates under the Common Law code, under which anything not specifically forbidden is permitted.

How standards are enforced—Once ratified, a standard can be enforced in one of two ways:

(1) Domestic compliance is required by the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (signed by the United States), in which Article 3 makes domestic (internal) compliance mandatory with WTO accepted standards (e.g. Codex Alimentarius).

Countries whose domestic law complies with Codex regulations are held to be in automatic compliance with Codex Alimentarius for WTO Dispute Resolution purposes.

(2) International trade sanctions may be applied to countries which, by means of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Resolution process, are found to be in violation of the Codex Alimentarius Standards.

In the absence of any trade dispute, the WTO can charge a nation with providing a hidden or overt barrier to trade (i.e. not meeting Codex regulations) of foodstuffs; thus this would subject them to WTO trade sanctions anyway.

Also an EU country can file a trade dispute with the WTO against the U.S. The WTO Dispute Settlement Panel would compare the restrictive Codex Guidelines against the lenient U.S. pattern.

All this may seem very technical; and it is. Yet its complicated machinery is being used to bring millions of people under the control of a few men.

Codex uses WTO Trade Sanctions to override national laws. As mentioned earlier, on October 11, 1997, the FDA issued a policy statement in the United States Federal Register, which stated that our nation would accept international standards, whether completed or nearing completion, in preference to domestic standards.

This laid the ground work for the replacement of our domestic laws and standards, by those of Codex; yet our domestic laws and standards are far higher than those of Codex! Actually, the standards set by Codex are dangerously low. This is because Codex standards are set by the various corporations and industries, so they can make more money.

This replacement would take place despite the will of the American people, as expressed through the laws passed by their elected representatives to keep their food safe and their supplements available.

Codex Alimentarius, although lacking the force of law, is a set of regulations which can be enforced by trade sanctions of the WTO; and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPSA) can compel compliance with its rules in virtually every country of the world—through nation membership in the WTO.