This is the headlines of a report in Forbes.com. Clearly, American government and the business community are very unhappy about the problem regarding Pepsi and Coke in India. The situation is only becoming more and more complicated every day. There is sign of a solution to this problem at this moment. I am quoting from the report of Forbes:
'This kind of action is a setback for the Indian economy,' Undersecretary for International Trade Franklin Lavin told Agence France-Presse.
'In a time when India is working hard to attract and retain foreign investment, it would be unfortunate if the discussion were dominated by those who did not want to treat foreign companies fairly,' he said.
So, US government has come forward to support Coke and Pepsi. I think that US government is going to push the Indian government for better treatment of the two cola companies. What is interesting to me is that Franklin Lavin has avoided the main issue- whether products of these two cola giants in India contain dangerous level of pesticide or not. Instead, he supported Coke and Pepsi and viewed that it would damage Indian effort to attract foreign investment. However, I feel that this would only irritate a lot of people in India and the campaign against the two cola companies will only gain more momentum.
The best thing for US government to do is to offer scientific support to India about this whole matter. I feel that independent scientists from India and USA should carry out tests on cola products. However, warning India will not help Coke and Pepsi.
Am I right?
US government policy wants others to follow 'Love me, love my dog'. Do they handle such serious public health issues by governmental fiats without proper investigation? If it were so, Ford would not have been forced to recall 6.5 million cars suspected to have fire risks.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 13, 2006 7:44 PM | Permalink to Comment