In Canada, Europe and other parts of the world, the number of people is growing who avoid buying American products because of the duties introduced by the US President Donald Trump.
Trade war is not the only reason. “Trump's statements about the desire to buy Greenland, it was just too much for me,” says BBC because Albertus, a school director living in the suburbs of Copenhagen. He adds that joining the boycott was his way to take action.
Trump and Greenland duties. Denmark is boycotted by American goods
The boycott is particularly strong in Denmark (Greenland is the autonomous dependent territory of Denmark). The largest Danish grocery shop operator, Salling Group, recently introduced a symbol, a black star on price labels to mean European brands.
“I can't do anything with the American political system, but I can vote by credit card” – says Albertus.
One of his first moves was the cancellation of the subscription to American streaming services, including Netflix, Disney Plus and Apple TV.
Because Albertus is the administrator of the Danish group on Facebook dedicated to helping people in the boycott of the USA. In a group that has 90,000 Members, people share recommendations regarding local alternatives for goods from the USA, from shoes to grass mowers.
Mette Heerulff Christiansen, the owner of a grocery store in Copenhagen called Broders, stopped selling American products such as cheetos chips and Hershey's chocolate, in her store. It replaces them with Danish or European products if possible. “But technology, such as Facebook, is completely difficult to avoid,” he says.
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Duties and trade war. “Deeply disturbing”
Todd Brayman no longer buys his favorite red wine that comes from California. A veteran of the Canadian armed forces is one of the growing number of people in Canada who avoid buying products from the USA.
“In my life I served alongside the American armed forces. It is simply deeply disturbing and disappointing, where we are, taking into account the historical ties connecting our two countries,” says Mr. Bryman BBC.
Determining which products are Canadian, however, is not always easy. “Sometimes labels can be misleading,” adds Mr. Brayman.
To help himself, he uses an application that can scan the product code of the product and identify its origin. If the product is marked as American, the application suggests Canadian alternatives.
The application called Maple Scan is one of the many in Canada that help people shop locally. Its founder Sasha Ivanov says that 100,000 were downloaded. times since launching last month.
A boycott of American goods in response to customs. Does it make sense?
Douglas Irwin, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College in the USA, who specializes in the history of American trade policy, believes that the impact of boycott on the economy may be limited. “It is difficult to assess the economic importance of consumer boycots in terms of restriction of trade with the United States,” says BBC.
“In the past, boycoty did not last long and did not bring great results. They begin as an enemy response to some US actions, but over time they tend to disappear,” he assesses.
For now, however, the growing negative attitude to buying Canadian products in Canada increases the sale of many local brands. The general director of the Canadian loblaw grocery store on LinkedIn that the increase in weekly sales of Canadian products is two -digit.
Source: BBC
