The translated article (author: Daan van Lent):
Import Tariffs
No Tesla? No Heinz tomato ketchup? Swear off the iPhone? How far must a consumer go to lead a Buy European life and avoid American products and services?
The realization came when a Jeep Patriot with a Dutch license plate recently passed me on the highway and started driving right in front of me. Would I ever want to own that car? In this era of Trump's isolationist policies, would I want to drive around in an American car with 'Patriot' written on it?
As traffic sped along, my thoughts raced. What about other American products? Are they important to me? Could I do without them? If Americans are willing to sacrifice good relations for MAGA (Make America Great Again), could I contribute to MEGA (Make Europe Great Again)?
One conclusion I could already draw: I would never want such an American car. Too bad for Donald Trump, who has repeatedly complained that Europeans don't buy American cars, while Americans drive plenty of Mercedes, BMWs, Porsches, Audis, and other European cars. According to the president, the European import tariffs of 10 percent on American automobiles contribute to this lower demand. On European โ mainly German โ cars, the Americans impose only 2.5 percent. Therefore, Trump is threatening higher tariffs for European cars. The fact that American gas guzzlers are not attractive in Europe, where gas prices are much higher than in the US, apparently doesn't occur to him.
In recent years, Tesla has proven that Europeans are willing to drive an American car if it meets their consumer demands. Call it market dynamics. Tesla dominated the electric car market, mainly due to lagging competition. Even in the Netherlands, Tesla grew into one of the largest brands, with over 30,000 cars sold in 2024. The Tesla Model Y was the most popular car, with over 19,000 sales.
However, Tesla's sales plummeted in the first two months of this year, dropping by about 45 percent in Europe and nearly 24 percent in the Netherlands. It seems almost certain that the political activities of CEO Elon Musk in support of Trump have significantly influenced this decline. The Volkswagen ID4 surpassed Tesla as the best-selling electric car in Europe, and the Kia EV3 did the same in the Netherlands. With this, European consumers are giving a first indication of a Buy European trend. In addition to governments imposing tariffs on American products, this could be a strong signal.
Canadians can serve as an example, having launched a Buy Canadian campaign. According to polls, this campaign has broad support, with about 80 percent of consumers backing it. Purchases of Canadian products increased by 10 percent last month, at the expense of American products. The power of 450 million Europeans is significantly greater than that of the 37 million Canadians.
Now that the EU has imposed retaliatory tariffs this week in response to American import tariffs on aluminum and steel, I decided to conduct an experiment. So that I am prepared when the American president, as expected, delivers his next blow on April 2. Trump has already hinted at new tariffs on European cars, medicines, and food products. What challenges will I face as a consumer if I decide to adopt a Buy European mindset?
What is Buy European?
Before I impulsively enter a store, I ask myself a few more questions. What do I aim to achieve with Buy European? Is it about buying exclusively 'European,' or mainly about 'not buying American'? And thus: do I want to support businesses and farmers of European origin? Or is the goal primarily to boycott American businesses and farmers with a consumer boycott?
The answer to that question determines whether products from other non-European countries can still end up in the shopping cart or on the order list. If not, it excludes Asian, Latin American, or African products and services. But I wouldn't want to disadvantage workers and farmers in emerging markets โ provided they are treated fairly, with decent wages and good working conditions.
The only website I can find with a call to consumers to buy European products has named itself Go European and chooses to exclude all products from American companies, without considering where they are produced. The initiators are also behind an active group on (the American) social media platform Reddit, calling for American products to be turned upside down in supermarket shelves.
Here, I encounter a problem. There are also products with an American signature that are manufactured in Europe. Take Tesla, for example. Some of the models sold in Europe come from a factory near Berlin. Parts of such a car come from all over the world, probably including the US. How American is that Berlin-made Tesla?
But boycotting Tesla sales does send a message. Just like turning American brands upside down in the supermarket โ and those might well come from a European factory.
Bananas and Soy
In Canada, the consumer boycott is most visible in supermarkets and liquor stores. Shelves where American products were displayed remain empty. Canadian product manufacturers are putting a maple leaf on their labels. A Danish supermarket chain has announced it will put a star on the label of products made in Europe. But that doesn't help me much.
As I enter the supermarket, I try to consider which departments I need to be alert in. The produce section, which you usually encounter first in most supermarkets? Besides cars, Donald Trump also constantly complains that Europeans don't buy products from American farmers. Whether American farmers notice if we deliberately stop buying their products is questionable.
On the labels indicating the origin of fruits and vegetables at Albert Heijn and Jumbo, I mainly see European countries, sometimes African and Latin American. The US is not listed. Yet, the Netherlands imports โฌ433 million worth of fruits and vegetables from the US, according to preliminary figures for 2024 from the statistics bureau CBS. But I can't figure out what it involves. It could be oranges from Florida, I discover after some digging. But I don't find those fruits in the stores.
In the fruit section, I also curiously look at the bananas from Chiquita and Dole. Those brands are American companies. Their bananas are grown in Latin American countries. Alternatives are available, such as fair-trade bananas from Africa, Central, and South America.
Relatively little meat from the US is found in Dutch supermarkets and butcher shops. According to CBS import figures, it amounts to โฌ119 million. The EU restricts meat imports from the US for a reason. Americans administer far more hormones to their livestock than we in Europe consider desirable. American farmers wash their chickens in chlorine to combat bacterial contamination.
European authorities want to protect the health of European consumers and have long imposed restrictions on the import of hormone-treated meat and chlorine-washed chickens. Americans view these obstacles more as protectionist. The same applies to import restrictions on genetically modified crops, such as soybeans and corn.
Yet, soy remains a significant import category. But on the labels of soy products like tofu, I don't see where the soybeans come from. In Europe, a lot of American soy seems to end up in animal feed, I read on the American news site Politico.
That article provides another explanation for the lack of products from American farmers in European supermarkets. American farms are, on average, ten times larger than European ones and focus mainly on efficiently producing large quantities of meat, blocks of cheese, and silos full of grains, according to Politico. Delicacies like luxury cheeses, special salamis, or refined olive oil with regional designations, which European farmers produce, are hardly made by Americans.
The American trade deficit in agricultural products with Europe, amounting to $18 billion, has little to do with a difference in tariff levels, as there is hardly any. The EU exports expensive, luxury agricultural products to the US, while the US sends bulk products like soybeans, corn, and nuts to Europe.
I can trace those nuts with some effort. Strangely, the origin is indicated on unroasted nuts, but not on the labels of roasted or toasted nuts at Albert Heijn and Jumbo. The unroasted pecans at AH come from 'North America,' without specifying a country. The label on the walnuts is more specific: the US. The alternative is to grab organic walnuts from another shelf. Those come โ and I have to sniff around a bit for that โ from Ukraine.
Tomato Ketchup and Cola
As I venture further into the aisles, I encounter the complex question of whether I should remove all products from large American food multinationals like Mondelez, Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo, and Mars from my shopping list. For example, all Mars chocolate from the Mars factory in Veghel. Or all flakes, sprinkles, and sandwich toppings from an ostensibly Dutch brand like De Ruyter. That is owned by Kraft Heinz. Or the peanuts from Duyvis, which come from Zaandam. The brand and factory are owned by PepsiCo.
And then there's Heinz tomato ketchup; can it get more American? But that ketchup has been coming from a factory in the Dutch town of Elst since 1958. Where the tomatoes for it come from, I don't know. The website states that Heinz uses tomatoes grown in Spain, Portugal, and California. Are tomatoes from that American state shipped to Elst? No idea.
I search for more American products in the supermarket. For example, mayonnaise from Hellmannโs. The owner is Unilever, which is British-Dutch. But the brand is American. I find no information about the production location on the label, and the website mainly shows descriptions of American factories. A follow-up with Unilever's press department informs me that all Unilever products in Dutch supermarkets are produced in Europe.
The Netherlands imports โฌ313 million worth of 'prepared foods' from the US, thanks to the CBS. But I can't figure out which ones they are in the supermarket. Even the typically American Oreo cookie comes from a factory in Spain.
And then there are the American icons Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Coke and other soft drinks from the Coca-Cola Company in the Netherlands come 80 percent from a bottling plant in Dongen. Pepsi, like 7Up from the same owner, PepsiCo, is bottled by the Dutch soft drink producer Vrumona, which has been owned by the Danish Unibrew for two years.
The situation is no different with the 'King of Beers.' For about six years, Bud has been strongly promoted as a brand in the Dutch market. The light American beer is from the American-Brazilian-Belgian brewery conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev, which also counts Hertog Jan from Arcen among its brands. Bud for the European market is brewed in Leuven, in the same brewery as Jupiler.
So, what criterion do I apply here? Not buying a typically American brand? That would send a strong signal. But is it fair? Shouldn't I boycott all brands from an American multinational? The flakes from De Ruyter just as much as Heinz tomato ketchup from the same conglomerate? Or can I buy them because both end products are produced in Europe and support jobs and incomes here?
With wine and spirits, it's simpler. I can support the tariffs that the EU imposed this week on whiskey and American wines. So, the glass of Jack Daniels that I occasionally drink with a colleague at the local pub can be swapped for a Scottish malt. And for the chardonnay and zinfandel from California, where I once visited vineyards, there are more than enough alternatives from around the world. Without being significantly more expensive.
Flying and Gasoline
Should I adjust my travel behavior? I'm postponing a trip to the US for now, even though I have family there. Luckily, my nephew's wedding was last summer.
There are plenty of vacation destinations. Canadians, who don't have other neighboring countries they can travel to without flying, indicate in polls that they will stay in their own country more this year.
There are other questions. If I don't let my flight shame speak, how should I arrange my flight? American airlines are not an option. But should I also consider which aircraft will operate my intended flight? There's a good chance you'll have to choose between a European Airbus or an American Boeing. I can see this before booking by clicking on the flight details.
Traveling by public transport through Europe seems to pose no dilemmas. Train equipment does not come from the US, nor do buses.
But then there's road traffic. With my combustion engine car, I can drive past Esso and Texaco gas stations, subsidiaries of the American oil giants Exxon and Chevron. Filling up at Shell or BP seems safer. But do I know where the crude oil for their gasoline is extracted? Both British oil companies have drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico โ or, as Trump would say, the Gulf of America. And I have no idea where the crude oil for the gasoline at Avia, Argos, or Tinq gas stations comes from. A boycott of crude oil and oil products can have a real impact: they form the largest category in total Dutch imports (nearly โฌ70 billion) from the US.
In addition to oil, there is also โฌ5.2 billion in imports of natural gas and industrial gases. Trump has already pressured Europe to import much more LNG from the US โ to which the EU has responded positively. I don't know where the gas we burn in our heating boiler comes from. Is there also processed LNG from the US in it, and could I exclude it if I wanted to? Here, I'm left with a question.
AI and Clouds
The biggest pain point lies in my digital behavior. I have decided to install only one AI app on my phone, and that is Le Chat from Mistral. I'll slide aside that the American Microsoft has made a significant investment in this young French technology company. ChatGPT gets no prompts from me.
And about that smartphone: I have only just replaced my old iPhone this year with, well, a new iPhone. I justify that with the knowledge that it is largely manufactured in Asia, as long as Apple doesn't relocate production. Almost all consumer electronics from American or European brands come from Asia, I think conveniently.
Listening to music via the European Spotify can continue as usual. I can listen a bit more often to Britpop than to Americana. For American streaming services, I would have to look for European alternatives. And then you could watch more European and British films and series and ignore Hollywood violence.
But that's where it stops, due to American dominance in the online realm. I have already switched from X to BlueSky and from WhatsApp to Signal for ethical and privacy reasons, but I'm still connected to American companies. I want to avoid Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, also for my mental health.
There are no real European alternatives if I want to 'meet' people. I am active on LinkedIn for journalistic reasons. I reassure myself that founder Reid Hoffman was a major donor to the Democrats and hasn't changed his stance. But it remains an American platform.
The same applies to the games my son plays at home and his communication with friends. Platforms like Steam and Discord, or developers like Riot Games or Epic: all American.
And then there are the clouds where all my data is stored because I saved it there. Whether it's the NRC environments for all my work or my personal data. I already know from colleague Marloes de Koning's research that there are hardly any European alternatives, at most in early development.
Pension
Thus, my search for where I can choose European products over American ones turns into a search for which goods and services produced in the US actually enter my household. I also think briefly about my wardrobe. I haven't bought American brands like Levi's or Calvin Klein in years, so I don't need to check where their factories are. In our house, Adidas is the favorite sneaker brand, and Nike hardly comes in. And even in this case, I think: aren't all those sneakers manufactured in Asian countries like Vietnam?
Little truly American remains in daily life. Except for that one dominant area in our lives where dependence seems impossible to cut: our online life. It's a sobering realization.
After the publication of a statistical report by De Nederlandsche Bank this week, it also dawns on me that I could be acting against my own financial interests if I, along with other European consumers, boycott American companies. At the end of 2024, the invested capital of pension funds in European listed companies amounted to โฌ97 billion. Three times as much Dutch pension money was invested in shares of American companies (โฌ293 billion). The capital market in the US is larger, the returns are higher, and as a participant in the pension fund, I benefit from that.
If those American companies perform worse due to a European consumer boycott, I would also be harming myself. Their stock prices would fall, and so would my pension assets. In that way, my future might still be too closely tied to the US.
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Call to Action: What do you think and do? In the coming period, we will investigate how consumers respond to the escalating political and economic tensions between the EU and the US. Are consumers adjusting their behavior? Therefore, we are curious to know how NRC readers view calls to buy more European and less American. Have you already thought about this? Has your purchasing behavior already changed, or are you considering doing so? And do you encounter the same or different dilemmas than the issues described in this article? I would love to hear your insights via [email protected]. Your response may be used in further publications.
This article was published on March 15, 2025, in the NRC: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/03/14/koop-europese-waar-kan-ik-dat-en-wil-ik-dat-wel-echt-a4886412.
The article was translated by Le Chat (Mistral).
