|
|
|
|
For
Immediate Release: Unilever To
Legally Challenge Quebec Government on Yellow Margarine Seizure December
8, 1997 (Toronto) -- Unilever Canada Limited today announced its intention to
legally challenge the Quebec government’s recent seizure of yellow margarine
from the Consomat grocery store in Alma Quebec. “While
the Quebec government has seized the margarine, it has not laid any charges in
an apparent attempt to avoid the courts on this matter”, said Bruce Mactaggart,
Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary of Unilever Canada Limited.
“However,
we believe that anyone whose property is seized by the government has the right
to judicial determination. We
intend to exercise that right by pursuing this matter in Quebec Superior Court
to retrieve our property and to test the enforceability of the margarine colour
regulation, ” added Mactaggart. Recently,
Unilever Canada Limited imported a quantity of yellow margarine from the United
States for sale in the Consomat grocery in Alma Quebec on November 24, 1997.
The margarine is identical to coloured margarine that can be legally sold
anywhere else in the world. The
margarine was seized by the Quebec government inspectors shortly after the
product was made available for sale on store shelves in the province. Unilever
argues that Quebec’s margarine colour regulation is a disguised restriction on
international trade and is legally unenforceable by reason of
the North American Free Trade Agreement. Unilever’s
actions have been prompted by the Quebec government’s failure to repeal the
margarine colour regulation by September 1, 1997 under the terms of the
Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) signed by the Federal government and all
provinces, including Quebec, in 1994. The
Ontario government has accepted Unilever’s request to lodge a formal complaint
against Quebec under the AIT. Discussions
between the two provinces were scheduled to begin last week. Unilever Canada
Limited, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Unilever, is a diversified consumer products company whose
interests in Canada include Lever Pond's, Lipton, Good Humor-Breyers, Lipton
Monarch, A & W Beverages of Canada, Loders Croklaan, Blue Water Seafoods,
DiverseyLever Canada, Calvin Klein Cosmetics (Canada), Elizabeth Arden Canada,
Helene Curtis, and Bertolli Canada. -30- For
Information: Sean
McPhee
|
|
Copyright © 2004 - All Rights Reserved - No part of this website may be reproduced in any manner or downloaded without written permission from Sean McPhee & Associates Inc. Please report any errors to : webmaster@smcphee.com
.
|