Joe:

When I refer to NAFTA labelling, I mean the labelling that includes English,
French, and Spanish (I'm sure you've seen such packaging). The trouble I've seen
is that most often the French and Spanish is labelled in metric only, and the
English is labelled in both metric and ifp. With all States allowing metric-only
labelling, this kind of gaffe could largely disappear (all units of measurement
would be metric).

Even for those products that are to be sold only in the USA (for various reasons)
and are therefore labelled only in English, I suspect that metric-only labelling
will appear only when all 50 States allow for it.

Ezra


"Joseph B. Reid" wrote:

> Ezra Steinberg wrote in USMA 19510
>
> >I suspect, though, that a manufacturer would wait until ALL the States allow
> >metric-only labels before they would print such. When that happens, they can
> >sensibly do so because they could sell their products throughout the NAFTA
> >region with a single printing of labels. Thus, it seems very important to get
> >all the non-automatic States to approve metric-only labelling to facilitate
> >this transition.
>
> It is not that simple.  Canada requires package labels printed with equal
> prominence for French and English.  That is a much more expensive
> requirement than printing contents in ifp and metric.  Bad French will
> annoy or amuse francophone buyers, approximately a quarter of Canadian
> buyers.
>
> Joseph B.Reid
> 17 Glebe Road West
> Toronto  M5P 1C8             Tel. 416 486-6071

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