British shopkeepers dubbed the “Metric Martyrs” are celebrating the apparent end of a seven-year battle to maintain their right to sell in pounds and ounces.
European officials performed a dramatic u-turn yesterday, having ruled in 2000 Brussels that using imperial measures would be a criminal offence.
According to industry commissioner Gunther Verheugen, strict adherence to the law is harmful to trade with the US.
Under current plans, traders would have been prohibited from using any measurement except kilos from 2009. Verheugen now believes that dual marking is “good for business”. He is set to urge fellow commissioners to back his climbdown next week, pointing to EU research that shows it will help trade with the US.
The so-called metric martyrs have already called for a royal pardon for two traders convicted of breaking the law. The most high profile was Sunderland greengrocer Steve Thoburn, who led the fight, but died in 2004, days after losing an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
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