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Archives | (August 2001)
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What You Don't Know Can Hurt You! Part One (cont.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 3 of 3 When foreign shrimp fishing boats operating in the Gulf of Mexico complained that our rules on protecting endangered sea turtles discriminated against them, the WTO agreed and we had to give them an exemption as well. How does all this affect network marketing? In the United States, network marketers derive anywhere from 40% to 60% of their income from the sale of vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements. Indeed, for many network marketers, sales of these products provide a guaranteed minimum level of sales required to qualify for additional incentives and bonuses under many commission structures. But if the EU rules were applied in the United States, such sales would be prohibited – that’s right, prohibited! What are they and why are they being issued? The move to ban supplement sales came out of Big Pharma’s concern over inroads by dietary supplements in key markets. Herbal remedies like St. John’s Wort, Melatonin and Red Rice Yeast were giving their pharmaceutical competitors a run for their money. More and more Baby Boomers were looking to vitamins, minerals and other products to improve their health, further shrinking the market for drugs. Big Pharma wanted them gone, and gone now! Their first attempt was through another international body, the Codex Alimentarius, or simply, Codex, a multi-national commission governed by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Its purpose is to standardize medical and health regulations among nations. The standards proposed by the Codex would have made all dietary supplements, including vitamins and minerals prescription items, limited their potency and prohibited all health claims. A last-minute barrage of consumer activism kept the rule from being passed, but Big Pharma was not about to be denied. They turned to the EU’s bureaucrats to do their dirty work. In part two of “What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You,” learn what the European Union’s bureaucrats came up with, and why it endangers your business. |
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