Reading the results of the NIST forums on metric-only FPLA, I think NIST provided that chance, and was looking for advocates. Those interests refused to advocate, although they admitted they "secretly" supported.
They somehow concluded (I think wrongly) that public advocacy on the issue would harm their corporate reputations. I will also take a more extreme position and say that I think the large companies prefer it as a way to hurt small companies. If it is the law, everybody has to bear the costs of obeying it. He can obey at the least cost has a slight competitive advantage. A Large company can spread the setup costs of multiple labelling rules (in different countries) over many more units than a small company; they have economies of scale. While every company would benefit from eliminating the redundancy, smaller companies would benefit more; whu would large companies want that. Frankly, in the US, you can be metric internally if you wish, convert a couple of numbers to Customary, and your customers are happy, the government is happy, and you laugh all the way to the bank. You waste a little money, but your competitors waste more (your foreign competitors also have some compliance costs, but have probably figured out the deal). --- On Fri, 3/13/09, Victor Jockin <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Victor Jockin <[email protected]> > Subject: [USMA:43790] Re: USC units spread to the UK - and no-one notices! > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Date: Friday, March 13, 2009, 11:45 PM > If there was a central pro-metric group organizing those > interests, like P&G, importers, the EU and other foreign > interests, etc., they collectively might very well defeat > FMI on this issue. I don't believe anyone is doing that > at the moment. > > > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "John M. Steele" > <[email protected]> > Sent: 03/13/2009 7:50 PM > To: "U.S. Metric Association" > <[email protected]> > Subject: [USMA:43777] Re: USC units spread to the UK - and > no-one notices! > > > > > > > To be honest, I think it would be substantially easier > for companies who favor metric-only (like Proctor & > Gamble) to take a public stand and lobby for it. The main > reason FMI can get support is that companies like P&G > refuse to advocate for metric-only. > > > > Perhaps a foreign company or trade group could or a > foreign government could appeal to WTO. However, I think > that is unlikely. It could also backfire if the public is > not prepared for it. > > > > The real problem is there is no leader who has > standing on the issue of metric-only.
