PR Newswire, March 27, 2007

WTO 'FEVER' CAN STEM ADVANCE OF PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE 'VIRUS'

[Rachel's introduction: The sky is falling! The precautionary principle is spreading around the globe like a deadly virus. Be afraid. Be very afraid!]

Princeton, N.J. -- In a recent editorial and newsletter interview, trade and regulatory lawyer Lawrence Kogan discusses why commencing a WTO [World Trade Organization] legal action against the European Union's (EU's) REACH chemicals regulatory regime remains the most effective way to halt the global advance of the extra-WTO Precautionary Principle.

The costly and burdensome REACH was adopted last winter despite widespread international protest. Nevertheless, Brussels' allies within the new 110th Congress have admonished U.S. negotiators preparing for the upcoming April EU-US Transatlantic Summit to work towards the harmonization of REACH with U.S. chemicals laws. Apparently, these representatives do not 'care' whether it will cost America its economic health.

Mr. Kogan argues that, "for the past decade, the EU has exported its regulatory aversion to best-available science, economic-cost benefit analysis and strong intellectual property right protections throughout the world to 'level the economic playing field' for its noncompetitive industries." It has tried to make the global legal environment "more hospitable to the Precautionary Principle", he says, "in much the same way that a protein-coated virus infects a healthy human body and redesigns its metabolism."

According to Kogan, "The Precautionary Principle virus' REACH protein has already attached itself to and penetrated foreign host cells (U.S. and other non-EU sovereign jurisdictions), is reprogramming them with its unique DNA code (hazard- as opposed to risk-based chemicals laws and industry practices), and is rapidly reproducing itself (at federal, state/provincial and local levels) and spreading to other uninfected cells" (nations) in the global economy. He emphasizes that "we must arrest the Precautionary Principle just as the human body destroys infections, before it spirals out of control, reforms international law and overtakes the American free enterprise system".

Kogan makes an important point. The human body does not rid itself of debilitating viruses by becoming more hospitable, and thus, less resistant, to them. Rather, the human immune system aggressively attacks infections by producing toxic chemicals that cause the body's temperature to rise.

The resulting fever helps the body by slowing down the rate of viral reproduction and ultimately killing off the virus. The Institute for Trade, Standards and Sustainable Development (ITSSD) is a non-partisan non-profit international legal research and educational organization that examines international law relating to trade, industry and positive sustainable development around the world. These ITSSD documents are accessible online at:

http://www.itssd.org/Publications/p04_SCM03_Viewpoint2.pdf and http://www.itssd.org/interviews/200701300402Precautionary2.pdf.

Contact: Lawrence Kogan Institute for Trade, Standards and Sustainable Development +1-609-951-2222 info@itssd.org

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