[NV Greens] Fwd: [media-states] GREEN RELEASE: WTO mandate on vitamins violates US sovereignty, withdrawal urged

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
>http://www.gp.org
>
>For Immediate Release:
>Monday, March 28, 2005
>
>Contacts:
>Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
>cell 202-487-0693, mclarty at greens.org
>Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,
>nallen at acadia.net
>
>
>GREENS: WTO MANDATE ON DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS ERODES
>U.S. DEMOCRACY, WITHDRAWAL FROM WTO URGED
>
>
>WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders called
>Congress's impending surrender to the World Trade
>Organization (WTO) on the availability of dietary
>supplements a blow to U.S. sovereignty,
>democracy, and public health.
>
>If the WTO imposes regulatory harmonization of
>dietary supplements on the U.S., consumers could
>face sharp prices rises for such products here as
>they have in some European countries.
>
>"The Green Party warned all along that
>international trade authorities like the WTO
>would overrule our ability to pass our own laws,"
>said Howie Hawkins, Teamster, fair trade
>activist, and chair of the Green Party of
>Onondaga County, New York.  "If Congress, which
>is authorized by the Constitution to regulate
>interstate trade, signed away such powers when it
>endorsed U.S. membership in the WTO, then the
>Constitution has been rendered meaningless.  We
>urge Congress to defy the WTO and to cancel U.S.
>membership in the WTO when it comes up for review
>later this year."
>
>The Green Party favors international trade pacts
>that promote democracy, economic justice, and
>environmental sustainability, and urges abolition
>of the WTO unless it is reformed in accord with
>these principles and goals.
>
>Greens compared Congress's compliance with WTO
>rulings with Congress's vote in October, 2002 to
>surrender its constitutional power to declare war
>to the White House.
>
>"In both cases, Congress undermined its own
>power, vital to the survival of democracy, and
>granted unchecked power to an international
>bureaucracy and to the executive branch of U.S.
>government," said Nan Garrett, Georgia Green and
>Spokesperson for the National Women's Caucus, who
>noted that both Democrats and Republicans voted
>yes on WTO membership and on the transfer of war
>power.
>
>Such concerns have motivated Green Party members
>and other Americans who value labor,
>environmental, human rights, consumer, and health
>protections to protest the WTO and other
>international trade authorities and agreements.
>Many Greens plan to participate in demonstrations
>and other events during the spring meetings of
>the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in
>Washington, D.C.
>
>
>MORE INFORMATION
>
>The Green Party of the United States
>http://www.gp.org
>1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
>Washington, DC 20009.
>202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
>Fax 202-319-7193
>
>"Bowing and Scraping for the WTO"
>by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), February 28, 2005
>http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2005/tst022805.htm
>
>"Summer of '05: Critical Time for Dietary
>Supplements"
>by Suzan Walter
>American Holistic Health Association
>http://ahha.org/CodexWalter2005.htm
>
>Alliance for Natural Health
>http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/
>
>
>~ END ~
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand