Do you want to know what country produced the food you eat? Too bad, says the World Trade Organization (WTO). That’s a barrier to free trade, so you don’t get to know.

The US instituted a labeling law requiring that all foods’ country of origin be on the label; it was part of the 2008 Farm Bill. Canada and Mexico complained to the WTO, saying that it would discourage food imports. It took three years, but the WTO decided that labeling food with its country of origin is a “technical barrier to trade”.  In 1979, the US signed a treaty that includes prevention of technical barriers to trade. Of course, that term was not fully defined. It was up to the WTO to say just what it means. And they’ve done just that in regard to food—though for some inexplicable reason, meat is not included. Therefore, country of origin labeling can continue with meat.

But if you’d like to know that the honey on a supermarket shelf did not come from China— where much of it is produced by badly abused bees, is often contaminated with lead, may contain an antibiotic, and sometimes doesn’t even contain any honey—well, that’s just too bad. You don’t have a right to know.

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is not cool to the WTO.  You see, COOL is a TBT, a technical barrier to trade. The United States of America, along with virtually all other nations of the world, has signed treaties with the WTO that give it authority over matters of trade—authority to say what is and is not legal inside countries if the issue affects trade. At the moment, this ruling affects only the US, but it obviously will not be limited to it.

Nearly every nation of the world has handed over its sovereignty to the WTO. Click here to see a world map showing the nations that do and don’t belong to the WTO.

Here’s what the WTO says to justify the concept of TBT:

Technical regulations and product standards may vary from country to country. Having many different regulations and standards makes life difficult for producers and exporters. If regulations are set arbitrarily, they could be used as an excuse for protectionism.

No matter how this turkey is dressed, the real purpose is to make the world safe for multinational corporations. Multinational corporations now have control over virtually every aspect of our lives by promoting and instituting treaties that are implemented via the WTO and the United Nations. Though the lingo of health and fairness is used to sell these regulations, the reality is that neither has anything to do with it. It’s all about making it easy for multinational corporations to cram their crap down our throats.

Most food is now produced or distributed through multinational corporations. Because of regulations being brought into effect now at the behest of multinational corporations through their agents, the WTO and UN, along with the governments of nations that are now wholly owned by corporate money, our right even to know what’s in our food or where it comes from has been destroyed.

Sources:

• WTO Strikes Down Country-of-Origin Labeling
• Tainted Chinese Honey May Be on U.S. Store Shelves
• Technical barriers to trade
• http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2011-11-20/the-source-of-food-is-none-of-your-business-says-wto/