Hi, I'm Victor, a new USMA member. Anyone have a sense of whether this
concession by the EU is likely to succeed in pressuring the US to allow
optional metric-only labels? Or is opposition from food retailers
impossible to overcome?
If that measure passes in the US, it seems to me like it would be one of the
most important breakthroughs in the history of metrication in this country.
The story would likely not make the news, and consumers would not notice
much right away. But I could see metric-only labels slowly increasing in
use over a period of years, and eventually, perhaps, a tipping point would
be reached. To me, that tipping point could be when supermarkets start to
adopt metric units on their unit price-comparison shelf labels, which would
go a long way toward getting the public to think in terms of liters and
grams. Right now, at least at my local market (Von's in the LA area), they
use traditional units on shelf labels even for wine, which is all metric on
the bottle.
Victor Jockin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Norman & Nancy Werling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: 02/21/2008 11:53 AM
Subject: [USMA:40474] Re: EU Metric Directive
Gene & USMA members,
It is no surprise that the USA and, to a lesser extent, the UK and Ireland
are certainly the "culprits" requiring, or at the very least,causing the
accommodations shown on page 6/7 of the EC's web link.
Norm Werling
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:14
Subject: [USMA:40472] EU Metric Directive
EU Metric Directive (80/181/EEC) Status:
In September 2007, the EC published a proposal to
modify the Metric Directive to indefinitely allow
industry to use supplementary units along with
metric units. On November 29, 2007, the European
Parliament voted in favor of the European
Commission's proposed amendments to the EU Metric
Directive (which includes an indefinite extension to
supplementary indications,
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A6-2007-0430+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN).
I understand that the Council has to vote next,...
Whether or not this latest proposal will be adopted
is still uncertain,...
Additional resources can be found at:
ec.europa.eu/enterprise/prepack/unitmeas/uni_ms_en.htm
...
contact Ms. Ann Ngo, Office of
the European Union, Market Access & Compliance/ITA,
U.S. Department of Commerce (see below), who is the
DoC-EU Metric Directive point of contact. Ms. Ngo
maintains an email list and periodically distributes
EU Metric Directive/FPLA updates.
Ann Ngo
Office of the European Union
Market Access & Compliance
International Trade Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
(202) 482-0010
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Elizabeth Gentry provided the above information, which I have edited to
delete lines of less relevance to the USMA.
Gene.
