For motorcycle lovers in Sweden, Harley-Davidson is the hottest brand on the road. Jack Daniel’s whiskey beckons from the bar at British pubs. In France, Levi’s jeans are all about chic.
But in the tumult of President Donald Trump’s trade war with Europe, many European consumers are starting to avoid U.S. products and services in what appears to be a decisive and potentially long-term shift away from buying American, according to a new assessment by the European Central Bank. …CONTINUE READING
In April, Trump imposed a 10% blanket tariff on America’s trading partners and threatened “reciprocal tariffs” on many of those, including the European Union. Companies like Tesla and McDonald’s are seeing customers in Europe put off by “Made in America.”
“The newly imposed U.S. trade tariffs on European products are causing European consumers to think twice about what’s in their shopping cart,” the ECB wrote in a blog post about its research on consumer behavior. “Consumers are very willing to actively move away from U.S. products and services.”
Europeans Test Grassroot Boycotts
Europeans had already begun testing grassroots boycotts on American products, including Heinz ketchup and Lay’s potato chips, shortly after Trump took office. His threats to take over Greenland, part of Denmark, energized Danes to organize no-buy campaigns on Facebook. Tesla owners in Sweden slapped “shame” bumper stickers on their cars to distance themselves from Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who is one of Trump’s top advisers.
But Europeans’ anguish over Trump’s treatment of America’s longtime allies has hardened as he has moved to rewire world trade with steep global tariffs, the central bank found.
Trump took particular aim at the European Union, which he called “very, very bad to us” for not buying more from the United States, and threatened the bloc with a 20% “reciprocal” tariff last month. Such talk bewildered many Europeans and rattled EU leaders, who retaliated with a 25% duty on many U.S. goods.
Both sides called a temporary truce after Trump abruptly reversed course and delayed tariffs until the summer. But the 10% baseline tariff is still in place, and a trans-Atlantic trade war could easily flare again.
And even if a trade deal is reached, Europe’s newfound wariness of its longtime ally will not easily be unwound. The ECB study found that even if a mere 5% tax was placed on American products sold in Europe, Europeans would be inclined to shun them.
What is new, the central bank said, is a “preference” among European consumers “to move away from U.S. products and brands altogether,” no matter what the cost. That was the case even for households that could bear the brunt of higher prices.
“Even though they could afford more expensive U.S. products and services, they consciously choose alternatives,” the bank said. “This suggests that consumers’ reactions may not just be a temporary response to tariff increases, but instead signal a possible long-term structural shift in consumer preferences away from U.S. products and brands.”
App Tells Consumers if Product Is American
In Germany and Italy, developers have created apps that scan grocery and clothing items for people who want to make sure they are not buying American. The top app, BrandSnap, even suggests European alternatives.
On a French-run “Boycott USA!” Facebook channel with 31,000 members, people boast about buying Adidas, a German brand, over Nike and New Balance, and post stories about avoiding travel to the United States.
In a Danish Facebook group with 95,000 members, people try to help each other figure out if products like Gillette Mach 3 razor blades or Schweppes soda are from the United States. One run from Sweden promotes alternatives to Airbnb and is calling for a European boycott on Meta platforms for a week in May.
Europeans have also posted online to say they have begun canceling subscriptions to U.S. streaming giants, including Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.
Some consumers who have boycotted Amazon have gone online to lament that delivery from alternate e-commerce platforms in their countries is slower or less reliable but say that they are staying the course.
Millions of people still buy American goods and services worldwide, but U.S. companies and investors are keeping a close eye on international markets for signs of anti-American sentiment related to Trump’s policies.
In Europe, Tesla sales continued a sharp decline in April, data showed, including an 81% plunge in Sweden from a year earlier, as protests against Musk’s political views held steady.
And McDonald’s said it was observing growing negative attitudes abroad toward U.S. brands, especially in Northern Europe and Canada.
International consumers are “going to be cutting back their purchase of American brands, and we’ve seen an uptick in anti-American sentiment,” the burger chain’s CEO, Chris Kempczinski, said in a call with analysts last week.
The McDonald’s brand does not seem to have been damaged yet — same-store sales in Canada and Europe were down only 1% in the first quarter from a year earlier. But there is an “8- to a 10-point increase in anti-American sentiment,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times
