North American businesses need to know that the display of U.S. and industry-specific measurements alongside metric could be illegal in the European Union in less than three year's time.


BWMA (British Weights and Measures Association) is concerned that many U.S. and Canadian businesses are not aware of this deadline, or of a current consultation by the European Commission that closes in three week's time asking for business views on the issue.

At the moment, businesses operating in the European Union have the option of showing US units alongside metric for all economic purposes (such as on product packaging, websites, catalogues, etc). Under EC Directive 80/181, however, extra measurement information will be illegal within the EU from 1 January 2010.

If the ban on US and industry-specific measurements alongside metric goes ahead, U.S. and Canadian industry will be forced to duplicate
manufacturing processes when selling goods both in Europe and internationally, since they will no longer be able to use one process in both metric and US measurements.

According to BWMA Director John Gardner, "A ban on U.S. customary units in the European Union hits American and European businesses equally hard, since both rely on these measurements for international trade, and for traditional industries. We are calling on the European Commission to repeal the 2010 ban on U.S. measurements alongside metric".

The ban will apply to all products, packaging, advertisements,instructions, brochures, magazines, books, e-commerce, internet sites,
internal business processes, catalogues, etc. No industry is exempt from the ban.