Hi all,

I have seen many products and information from Taiwan using both FFU and SI
only when it benefits them to do so. This is when the product concerned is
being marketed world-wide and the bulk of their sales are in the US. They
would know their sales efforts would be hampered if they used SI only
units. It's common knowledge that Americans prefer to buy US-made goods
where possible, so every effort has to be made to "speak American" if you
want to sell your goods.

Regards
Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 8:52 AM
Subject: [USMA:22017] Re: Pound of cabbage


2002-09-01


I see nothing in the article that indicates Taiwan is reverting to old
measures.  There is the phrase about the cost of cabbage using pounds, but
that could have been an example put forth by the BBC correspondent as you
suggested.  And, we have to remember that Taiwan never used pounds or any
other FFU unit.  They had their own Chinese units.  If there was a
reversion, it would be to Chinese units, not British.

I'm sure that in Taiwan it is permissible to ask for amounts in old units,
but they have to be weighed in metric units.  When I was in Taiwan in the
mid-90s, all I saw, even in the street markets, were scales in kilograms
only.  Not knowing the language, I could not tell what the people were
ordering in.   Nor do I know if traditional Chinese units have been set to
rational values in SI.  A reversion to old units would serve no purpose at
this time.

John


----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Naughtin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, 2002-09-01 17:05
Subject: [USMA:22010] Pound of cabbage


> Dear All,
>
> Through the night, I heard this news item on the BBC World Service. I
didn't
> believe what I was hearing so I looked up the item and found it at:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2229208.stm
>
> As you can see, either the Mayor of Tainan has decided that his city will
> revert to old measures such as pounds for trade, or the BBC reporter,
Damian
> Grammaticas, has translated from kilogram to pound for his own purposes.
I
> suspect the latter.
>
> Dear Joe,
>
> Do you know when Taiwan and Korea adopted metric measures. I seem to
recall
> that these two nations now have the most severe laws about using old
> measures. This is one of the reasons that I don't think that the Mayor of
> Tainan would be training his citizens to use pounds.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Pat Naughtin
>
>

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