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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (2086)	5/26/1999 8:04:00 PM
From: Dan Spillane	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 2539

NO! Not margarine that looks like butter! Please! Save me Greenpeace! Unilever to appeal Quebec margarine court decision (Update with Unilever reaction in paras 1,2,7,8,10 and details in para 9) By Patrick White QUEBEC CITY, May 26 (Reuters) - Unilever Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ULVR.L) on Wednesday lost a long running Quebec court battle to win the right to sell margarine that looks like butter, but the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant said it would launch an immediate appeal. ''The judgment does not go as far as we would like but it does provide an excellent foundation for appeal,'' company spokesman Sean McPhee told Reuters. Quebec's 11,000 dairy farmers, a strong political force in the French-speaking province, are opposed to scrapping the anachronistic color restrictions and welcomed the ruling. The Quebec Milk Producers Federation had said 3,000 jobs could be lost if the color ban was scrapped. Quebec Superior Court Judge Derek Guthrie ruled on Wednesday the province's regulation did not infringe the company's freedom of expression. ''The ruling states that the right of Unilever to choose the color of a product is not protected by the Canadian and Quebec Charter of Rights,'' a spokeswoman at Guthrie's office told Reuters. Unilever Canada said the ruling was not all bad news. ''It totally dismissed the principal argument advanced by the government that the regulation is necessary to protect consumers. We view that as a major victory,'' McPhee added. The court said the Canadian unit of Unilever argued in court last year that the regulation was invalid, unjust and unconstitutional. It also said the Quebec law -- believed to be the only one of its kind in the world -- violated the North American Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization Agreement as well as several Canadian laws and decrees. ''The judgment clearly identifies the regulation as purely protectionist. It points out that the Quebec government is maintaining a protectionist policy in spite of its declared commitment to free trade,'' McPhee said. The province had also contended that the prohibition was designed to help consumers distinguish between margarine and butter but the court ruled that this argument was not good enough. Judge Guthrie said Quebec had the right to protect its milk industry but quashed the seizure of of a 440-pound (200-kg) shipment of yellow margarine from an Alma, Quebec grocery store in November 1997. It said the seizure was illegal and abusive as the the authorities made no move to prosecute the company. The Quebec government said on Wednesday it was considering appealing that part of the ruling. Unilever had said the color regulation cost its Lipton operating division -- which makes margarine under the Country Crock, Becel, Monarch, and Fleischmann's brands -- C$1.2 million a year because it is forced to operate separate production runs and maintain double inventories for Quebec and the rest of Canada. ($1 equals 1.47 Canadian dollar)