Picon Lobbies Government To Fight Measures Ban

Working on behalf of its members, Picon and the Engineering and Machinery Alliance has asked the UK Government to fight the possible ban on the use of imperial measures in literature and on products.

Working on behalf of its members, many of whom are SME mechanical engineering firms, Picon and the Engineering and Machinery Alliance (EAMA) has asked the UK Government's Industry Minister, Margaret Hodge, to fight the possible ban on the use of imperial measures in literature and on products.

The potential ban, which could come in to effect from 2010, would apply to products destined for both European Union (EU) and non-EU markets.

Having joined the Europe-wide engineering lobbying organisation Orgalime, EAMA is already lobbying on the issue in Brussels.

Picon chief executive John Brazier said: "We had an extremely sympathetic hearing from the minister and were able to discuss ways to mitigate some of the unintended consequences of policy on our members.

The metric issue is one, where for example it would make it much more difficult for us to export to the USA.

The others were family friendly policies, manufacturing's poor investment record, regionalisation and regulation and red tape.

We expect to progress each of those areas over the next 12 months." However, he added that as the proposed metric directive demonstrated, so much of the legislation affecting companies starts in Brussels, so the organisation needed to be involved at the earliest stage of the process.

Brazier continued: "Orgalime is well resourced and well respected, representing over a quarter of all EU manufacturing and that level of membership it helps to open doors at the European Commission and other institutions.

It also creates the necessary pressure for high quality analysis and strong policy engagement, which is what we want to be able to offer our members.".

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