Codex and The EU Food Supplement Directive Corner the Market for The Pharmaceutical Companies

international | consumer issues | other press

Sunday October 29, 2006 17:46

by C Murray

Alliance for Natural Health E-Blast.

Alliance For Natural Health who are presently engaged in giving information on the
repurcussions of the EU Food Supplement Directive , in relation to consumer choice
in health care have released an Eblast re : The Upcoming Codex Conference in the
Golden Triangle , Chiang Mai, In Thailand.

http://www.alliance-natural-health.org

The previous Meetings have been in Bonn and ANH have claimed that the change of venue
will possibly mitigate against the attendance of developing nations to the conference, wherin
the mandatory adoption of the WHO/Codex regulations on food supplements amongst
trading bloc's such as the EU, will force either a two tier system of global Trade or an
adoption of Codex regulations globally, therby reducing consumer choice in food and
supplementary products.

The Codex regulations have been rejected by the FDA in the US, but accepted by the EU
trading Bloc. They are very similar to the EU food Supplement Directive currently making
its way through the EU Parliament which already is pressuring the complementary
medicine industry and indiviual choice in relation to our choices in this area.

Already restrictive guidelines, In Ireland and other places reduce the advertising ability of
complementary therapists such as homepaths, who would treat ailments through a variety of
means including dietary methods.

The Alliance for Natural Health Clearly states and backs up their claims that
(Mainstream Media) " anti-supplement press is part of a deliberate campaign by
pharmaceutical interests to skew public opinion against natural health products
and self-medication, or to frighten people away from complementary health
practioners whilst steering them toward orthodox medicine and pharmaceuticals"

There is one freedom of choice group delegated to the 'Golden Triangle' conference
next week- costs of attending these junkets are prohibitive , but the pharms
and multis are regular attendees. The Eu Bloc have managed to have a close
correlation between the restrictive Food Supplement Directive and the mandatory Codex
guidelines amongst the EU member states. ANH claims that despite the US FDA
rejection of the Codex guidelines that it will become a global issue through econmic
and political pressure and will create for the States and developing nations, in a best case
scenario a two -tier trading system, wherin products for home market and export will
be classifyed in completely different ways due to the globalised culture of the trading
bloc alliances of the two trading entities.

The E blast is available at : http://www.info@alliance-natural-health.org