Thank you Liz!
So this 500 page document is being issued under the Trump administration, but such a report concerning possible trade barriers is evidently done every year -- this is the 32nd annual edition. The US has *never* been a friend of the WHO code -- has never signed on, through how many presidents? Not to defend Trump (who I'm sure has read every word of this document) -- but does anyone know if this is the first time that the WHO Code restrictions have come up in this report?
It seems that the US has always chosen to treat baby formula as just another food, as a very profitable product to be sold, while turning a blind-eye to the public health ramifications. Does this report show a new direction or a more blatant statement of those motives? -- or are many people so alarmed in general that this long-standing issue is being pointed out?
Whether long-standing or a new direction --it is cause for alarm. We'd like to believe that in the modern era, we've all become so sophisticated as consumers -- but worried parents are very vulnerable to manipulation where their children are concerned. Breastfeeding has become a more difficult fit with modern lives, so they're primed to hear advertising that reassures them that the alternatives are just great. Societal attitudes and public health support and practical help have become more important in our era.
Good luck to us all.
Margaret Wills, IBCLC, Maryland USA
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2017 11:59:28 -0400
> From: Elizabeth Brooks <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Trump U. S. Trade Representative reports that Code-friendly laws elsewhere are "trade barriers"
>
> This. Is. Horrendous. (Hat tip to Lactnet's own Iona McNab for the original
> share).
>
> An all-out attack, in the annual report by the Trump U. S. Trade
> Representative (USTR), on *other* countries' successful legislation
> supporting the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes
> (to curb predatory marketing practices). Claims it is a "trade barrier" for
> the USA to have those countries safeguard vulnerable parents and children
> by restricting marketing practices. Translation: sales of formula will go
> down when breastfeeding rates go up, and the Trump USTR doesn't like that..
>
> Read about the report here:
> http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2017/04/trumps-trade-agency-attacks-other-countries-efforts-to-promote-and-protect-breastfeeding-in-new-repo.html
>
> See the actual report here:
> https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/reports/2017/NTE/2017%20NTE.pdf
> <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fustr.gov%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Ffiles%2Freports%2F2017%2FNTE%2F2017%2520NTE.pdf&h=ATPoJqoQ0qL3QVnDv_8CDuGvvCq2TnN5-JUs5vbHzrH1y9liARmG4s2oO7_Q-Y_5bbISXtpD8APuHj9XWBARX8S-lP4uiLhevb4NuPoMr_ezdq8TgirZCi-rG8MKadHGFPoLirrTKuHjPJKggw&enc=AZNoxerdZmrdfvpVUilPpiM0BTOkjndKqlsdKv0lUrOYafGiyMjO2VcvLq-1awd0T5_owT__-qWsP5FiHWRtzkHZ4cDEeTOPbB_sG2ncT9zaJzcStwwsE72fSPFENtpaa3uYILR_JvMXD7AbZ0NBXAksWEsH85zC7dXAAx26nngGSEcrlyOhyR2hSIT9n4JTz4vuZ_1YmTVyQ0QitZrjHHgO&s=1>
>
>
> --
> Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC, FILCA
> Wyndmoor, PA, USA
> Director, Human Milk Banking Assn of North America (2015-17)
> Adjunct Professor, Drexel Univ, Public Policy of Breastfeeding
> "IBCLCs empower women and save babies' lives!"-Ursuline Singleton
>
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