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Attention: Politics
and Business Editors
For Immediate Release:
Quebec Margarine
Colour Appeal Set for
March 25, 2002
Toronto, Ontario (March 20, 2002) -- Unilever Canada will present arguments to the Quebec Court
of Appeal on March 25, 2002 to annul Quebec’s margarine colour regulation. The
case will be heard at the Palais de justice, 1, rue Notre-Dame, 17th
Floor at 10:00 a.m.
The regulation, under Quebec’s Dairy Products and Dairy
Products Substitutes Act, is a barrier to free trade in Canada as it foists
additional costs on margarine manufacturers to produce one colour of margarine
for Quebec and another for the rest of Canada.
To initiate a legal challenge, Unilever Canada sued the
Quebec government in 1998 for its illegal seizure of a quantity of yellow
margarine sold in Alma, Quebec and for the government’s failure to repeal the
colour regulation in spite of its obligation to do so under the Agreement on
Internal Trade (AIT).
While the lower court dismissed the position of the
government and the milk producers that the colour ban is necessary to prevent
consumer confusion, and ruled that the regulation is solely designed to protect
the butter industry against competition, it did not repeal the regulation.
The lower court’s judgment also strongly suggested that the Quebec
Government’s failure to repeal the regulation as promised under the Agreement
on Internal Trade was politically motivated because it wanted “to avoid the
inconvenience of the producers of milk of the rural districts of Quebec during
the electoral year 1998.”
Unilever Canada will ask the Quebec Court of Appeal to
annul the regulation on the basis that the regulation is unreasonable,
discriminatory and in violation of national and international free trade
agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the
Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), signed
by the Quebec government. The
appeal hearing is expected to conclude by end of day, Monday March 25th
2002.
Unilever
Canada, a
subsidiary of Unilever, is a diversified consumer products company whose
interests in Canada include Unilever Canada – Food and Home & Personal
Care, Good Humor-Breyers, Unilever Bestfoods Foodservice Canada, Loders Croklaan,
Unilever Cosmetics International (Canada) and Bertolli Canada.
Unilever Canada has annual sales of $1.5 billion
and employs 3,300 people across Canada.
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For information:
Sean McPhee
416-214-1232
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