The trade war announced by the US president has now been launched by Donald Trump against Europe. European politicians are reacting accordingly. But voices are also growing louder calling on consumers not to buy products from the US.
Of course, there are those who say that this is hardly possible in a globally networked world of trade and that it is of little help. Personally, I don’t believe that, because consumers have a lot more power in their hands (or wallets) than they give themselves credit for. If no one buys strawberries from South America or Africa in the winter, the supermarket will think twice about putting those shelf warmers on the shelves.
In general, I don’t buy food from faraway places. That includes potatoes from Israel or Egypt, or beans from Chile or Zimbabwe. And it seems to me that our food markets are increasingly filled with these goods. That’s a good thing!
I love the idea of European consumers avoiding certain products from the USA. There are alternatives to many products, and I am happy to share them with readers of my blog. But there are also devices for which there are no alternatives. It will also be difficult to avoid devices that contain components from the US. That’s not the point. If you want to set an example, it is enough to avoid certain products.
Here are some examples:
Adidas instead of Nike
VW instead of Tesla
Jameson instead of Jim Beam
Fritz Cola instead of Coca Cola oder Pepsi
Peter Pane instead of McDonalds
Falke instead of Calvin Klein
Ratiopharm instead of Pfizer
Bosch instead of KitchenAid
BMW ainstead of Harley Davidson
Walnüsse out of France instead of California
If you take a look at the top 10 product groups that Europe buys from the U.S., you will see that, with the exception of automobiles, there is very little that the end consumer can do about it. Even when it comes to medicines, there is hardly any choice these days – you have to take what the pharmacies have in stock. So it’s about the end customer sending a signal when, for example, Tesla or Nike or Jim Beam sales in Europe go down.
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