AHPA has therefore prepared a document to address these inquiries, both for our members who market dietary supplements and for their health-conscious customers who use them. The document, �Codex Alimentarius and dietary supplements,� is posted on the AHPA website at http://www.ahpa.org/05_0413_CodexAndDS.pdf. It provides a short background on Codex as well as succinct discussions of the relationship between Codex and the World Trade Organization and of the pending adoption by Codex of guidelines on vitamin and mineral food supplements (VMS Guidelines). The effect of Codex on both international and domestic trade is also addressed and a short commentary on another international regulation, the EU Directive on Food Supplements, is also included.
AHPA�s Codex document also provides a table of �Quick Facts on Codex.� These include:
The effect of the Codex VMS Guidelines is that the US (and all countries in Codex) will be required to allow the import of all vitamin and mineral supplements that conform to the new guidelines.
Codex can affect a country's domestic laws by forcing them to be relaxed, but only if those laws are more restrictive than a Codex standard or guideline.
The Codex vitamin and mineral guidelines will not have a direct or immediate effect on US domestic law since US law is less restrictive than these Codex guidelines.
When Codex sets maximum levels on vitamins and minerals it will do so based on science.
The rights of American consumers are protected by DSHEA � and only the US Congress can amend US laws.