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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2018/04/02/opinion/contributors/feeding-obesity-in-trumps-new-nafta/">http://bangordailynews.com/2018/04/02/opinion/contributors/feeding-obesity-in-trumps-new-nafta/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Feeding obesity in Trump’s new NAFTA<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By Sharon Treat, Special to the BDN • April 2, 2018 7:56 am<o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Lately, we’ve heard a lot about tariffs, trade and the Trump administration’s renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which it wants to wrap up by the end of April.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="content-p" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" id="p-1">
<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">How will this deal affect Maine? Will NAFTA be improved? With closed-door negotiations and secret text, it’s hard to know. Until now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">On March 20, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/world/americas/nafta-food-labels-obesity.html"><span style="color:#3987C6">published confidential details</span></a> on
just one chapter, and what it reveals is alarming. Apparently, the junk food industry — purveyors of sugary drinks, salty snack foods, and prepackaged, fatty and hard-to-resist pizzas and other convenience foods — has convinced U.S. negotiators to push for
language in NAFTA designed to stop the U.S., Canada and Mexico from requiring effective consumer warnings on sugary drinks and packaged foods.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">The Times reports the U.S. wants to prevent any warning symbol, shape or color that “inappropriately denotes that a hazard exists from consumption of the food or nonalcoholic beverages.”
At a <a href="https://youtu.be/zO0VKcIvng0"><span style="color:#3987C6">congressional hearing</span></a> last week, the top U.S. trade official, Robert Lighthizer, both confirmed the essentials of the Times article and defended the policy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<em><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/05/opinion/contributors/tweaking-nafta-wont-cut-it-it-needs-a-major-rewrite/"><strong><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#3987C6;text-decoration:none">[Opinion:
Tweaking NAFTA won’t cut it. It needs a major rewrite.]</span></strong></a></span></em><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">This anti-labeling policy is unnecessary and inappropriate in a trade agreement, and it’s downright dangerous for our nation’s health.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">First, trade agreements should be about international trade, not blocking legitimate domestic public health measures. Inserting this industry-written proposal into NAFTA undermines democracy,
particularly as President Donald Trump has asked Congress <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-asks-congress-to-extend-his-trade-negotiating-authority"><span style="color:#3987C6">to extend “fast track” authority</span></a>, a move that would
truncate congressional deliberations and remove much of Congress’ independent authority to review or change the final deal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="content-p" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" id="p-7">
<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Second, this proposal will have serious real-world consequences, leading to premature deaths and the unnecessary expenditure of billions of dollars by families, health care systems and
state and federal governments. It targets a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/advance-article/doi/10.1093/heapro/daw109/2897774"><span style="color:#3987C6">proven front-line strategy</span></a> to tackle the obesity crisis. The labels work by educating
consumers at the point of purchase so they seek out healthier food, leading manufacturers to <a href="https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol90/iss1/7"><span style="color:#3987C6">reformulate their products</span></a> to avoid the warning labels, increasing
the availability of foods lower in fat, salt and sugar.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">The obesity epidemic affects every state in the U.S. and targets every segment of the population. Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2676543"><span style="color:#3987C6">is
obese</span></a>. Obesity shortens lives and drastically reduces quality of life, while costing billions of dollars for medical treatment, public programs and lost productivity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="content-p" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" id="p-9">
<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Maine, too, is overweight. We have the <a href="https://bangordailynews.com/2016/09/02/news/state/report-30-percent-of-mainers-are-obese-the-highest-rate-in-new-england/"><span style="color:#3987C6">highest
obesity rate in New England</span></a>, and more than <a href="https://stateofobesity.org/states/me"><span style="color:#3987C6">30 percent of Maine’s children</span></a> from kindergarten through high school are either obese or overweight. As the Maine Center
for Disease Control <a href="https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getTestimonyDoc.asp?id%3D77528"><span style="color:#3987C6">testified</span></a> last year before the Health and Human Services Committee, “Obesity puts a child at risk for high blood pressure,
high cholesterol, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, respiratory problems, and other conditions.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="content-p" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" id="p-10">
<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">In addition to the human toll this epidemic extracts, it is a huge financial burden. The Brookings Institution in 2014 <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2014/12/12/obesity-costs-evident-at-the-state-level/"><span style="color:#3987C6">estimated</span></a> that
7.9 percent of Maine’s Medicare spending and 11.8 percent of its Medicaid spending is attributable to obesity — or $192 million and $285 million, respectively. That was in 2006. With both health care costs and obesity rates increasing dramatically in the past
decade, those numbers are likely much higher today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="content-p" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" id="p-11">
<em><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2017/08/21/opinion/contributors/canadas-nafta-negotiators-may-find-an-unusual-ally-in-lepage/"><strong><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#3987C6;text-decoration:none">[Opinion:
Canada’s NAFTA negotiators may find an unusual ally in LePage]</span></strong></a></span></em><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="content-p" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" id="p-12">
<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Even as the NAFTA talks move toward undermining its authority to do so, the Canadian health agency has <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/programs/consultation-front-of-package-nutrition-labelling-cgi.html"><span style="color:#3987C6">initiated
rulemaking</span></a> to address high obesity rates by requiring junk food warning labels. In Mexico, where the burgeoning epidemic was <a href="https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article%3D1916%26context%3Dlaw_journal_law_policy"><span style="color:#3987C6">created
in part by NAFTA</span></a>, which led to dramatically increased investment in junk food and ubiquitous fast food joints, consumer groups are suing over <a href="http://elpoderdelconsumidor.org/prensa/la-suprema-corte-justicia-la-nacion-atrae-la-revision-la-sentencia-declara-inconstitucional-sistema-etiquetado-frontal-mexicano/"><span style="color:#3987C6">the
ineffectiveness of nutrition labeling standards</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="content-p" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" id="p-13">
<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Meanwhile, states and localities have led the U.S. charge <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/obesity-progress-and-challenges.aspx"><span style="color:#3987C6">to address the
growing crisis</span></a>, trying everything from mandatory recess and farm-to-school food purchasing, to menu calorie labeling and sugary drink taxes. Legislation to require warning labels on sugary drinks was introduced in <a href="https://custom.statenet.com/public/resources.cgi?id%3DID:bill:HI2017000S307%26ciq%3Dncsl7%26client_md%3Dac28c19f409b202c0010ffe8f9000780%26mode%3Dcurrent_text"><span style="color:#3987C6">Hawaii</span></a> and <a href="https://custom.statenet.com/public/resources.cgi?id%3DID:bill:NY2017000A5239%26ciq%3Dncsl7%26client_md%3Da3b1ae93fdc5da45ac7c84b6ae37bb09%26mode%3Dcurrent_text"><em><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#3987C6;text-decoration:none">New
York</span></em></a> in 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Is the NAFTA anti-labeling language a coincidence? I think not. The junk food industry is invoking a tried-and-true strategy, following in the footsteps of the tobacco industry that for
years effectively used trade agreements to block labeling rules. Mainers need to stand up to the industry, and its enablers in Washington, to make sure that the renegotiated NAFTA isn’t even worse than what came before.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="content-p" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:13.5pt;margin-left:0in;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;text-align:start;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;word-spacing:0px" id="p-15">
<em><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Sharon Treat is a senior attorney for the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy. She lives in Hallowell.</span></em><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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