Global boycott of US goods gains momentum amid tariffs broil
6 Min Read
Tesla sales are declining, while new apps and online groups emerge to assist consumers in selecting non-US products.
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A 'Boycott Tesla' message is drawn on the floor during a protest against Elon Musk and Tesla outside of a Tesla showroom, on Saturday, March 1st, 2025, in New York. (AP)
As the US president imposes tariffs on various nations and aggressively pushes for economic dominance, The Guardian sheds light on how countries across Europe, Canada, and Scandinavia are turning their backs on American goods.
Christian Tetzlaff, the renowned German classical violinist, was forthright in explaining why he and his quartet decided to cancel their summer US tour.
"There seems to be a quietness or denial about what’s going on," Tetzlaff said, describing his horror at the authoritarian policies of Donald Trump and the response of US elites to the country’s growing democratic crisis.
"I feel utter anger. I cannot go on with this feeling inside. I cannot just go and play a tour of beautiful concerts," he told The Guardian.
Tetzlaff, as per the report, is not alone in expressing his discontent. A rising international movement to boycott the US is spreading from Scandinavia to Canada to the UK and beyond, as consumers increasingly turn against US products.
Decline in Tesla sales
The most prominent example so far has been European car buyers rejecting Teslas produced by Elon Musk, a significant figure in Trump's administration as the head of the "department of government efficiency." This group has contributed to a sharp drop in Tesla’s share price, with 15% of its value wiped out in just one day.
The decline in Tesla sales in Europe has been well documented, alongside a Canadian consumer boycott in response to trade tariffs and Trump’s calls for Canada to become America’s 51st state. Over the past week, reports of cultural and other forms of boycotts and disinvestment have been increasing.
In Canada, where the American national anthem has been booed during hockey matches with US teams, a variety of apps has emerged with names such as "buy beaver", "maple scan", and "is this Canadian?" These apps allow shoppers to scan QR barcodes and avoid US products, from alcohol to pizza toppings.
Statistics Canada has indicated that the number of Canadians taking road trips to the US has dropped by 23% compared to February 2024.
While Canada and Mexico have been at the forefront of Trump’s trade war, the boycott movement is gaining traction beyond countries directly targeted by the US.
In Sweden, about 40,000 users have joined a Facebook group calling for a boycott of US companies, ironically including Facebook itself. The group suggests alternatives to US consumer products.
"I’ll replace as many American goods as I can and if many do so, it will clearly affect the supply in stores," wrote one member.
In Denmark, widespread anger over Trump’s threat to bring Greenland under US control has led the largest grocery company, the Salling group, to label European-made goods with a black star, making it easier for consumers to choose them over US-made products.
"We are making it easier to shop for European brands," said the company’s CEO, Anders Hagh, although he added that US products would still be available.
An even more striking move came from Norway’s largest oil bunkering operation, Haltbakk, which announced it would stop supplying fuel to US Navy ships.
Referring to a recent fiery meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump, the company posted on Facebook: "We have today been witnesses to the biggest shit show ever presented ‘live on TV’ by the current American president and his vice-president. Huge credit to the president of Ukraine for restraining himself and for keeping calm even though the USA put on a backstabbing TV show. It made us sick. As a result, we have decided to [immediately] STOP as a fuel provider to American forces in Norway and their ships calling Norwegian ports … We encourage all Norwegians and Europeans to follow our example."
The big picture
Boycotts, once familiar tactics targeting apartheid South Africa and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, have now found a new focus: the second Trump administration.
This week, Trump commented on the issue for the first time, lamenting the impact of the Tesla customer boycott and demonstrations.
He wrote on social media, "To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is putting it ‘on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they so often do, are trying to illegally and collusively [sic] boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers and Elon’s baby."
Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, wrote for the Centre for European Policy Analysis this week: "Nobody – nobody – would have thought that western businesses or consumers would use such tools against America. The United States is, after all, the leader of the free world. Or was: its vote with Russia, against Ukraine, at the United Nations last month, combined with Trump’s and Vance’s verbal attack on Zelenskyy, along with Trump’s denunciation of Zelenskyy as a dictator and a refusal to use similar language about the Russian despot, suggests to many that America is no longer an instinctive member of what we term the west."
For some, the backlash was entirely predictable.
When Trump first threatened to impose sweeping tariffs this year, Takeshi Niinami, CEO of the Japanese multinational brewing and distilling group Suntory Holdings, which owns several major US brands, told the Financial Times that international consumers were likely to shun American brands due to tariffs and emotions stemming from the trade war.
"We laid out the strategic and budget plan for 2025 expecting that American products, including American whiskey, will be less accepted by those countries outside of the US because of first, tariffs and, second, emotion," Niinami said.
The movement is likely to grow. Zoe Gardner, an organizer of the Stop Trump Coalition in the UK, has seen rapidly increasing interest.
"A lot of what we are seeing is coming about organically, people putting stuff on TikTok. People are so furious, and this is about taking back power. Already across Europe we are seeing sales of Tesla falling off a cliff because Musk encapsulates so much of the problem with the Trump administration, both its culture of horrible racism and the economic side," Gardner said, as quoted by The Guardian.
Read more: Trump's tariffs mark a shift toward protectionism: WSJ
