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French Businesses Say U.S. Boycott Is Hurting Them
Long article from WaPo I'll just give you the highlights.
An American backlash against French products and businesses has started to bite, dashing hopes here that appeals in the United States to punish France economically for opposing the war in Iraq would go unheeded. American importers of French wine are reporting sharp drops in sales in the past two months, and other French products also have been affected. The Federation of Wine Exporters has called a meeting Thursday to discuss how to respond. The nation's principal business federation took the unusual step of publicly acknowledging the problem, conceding today that sales, recruitment and business contacts have been hurt. It appealed to consumers and businesses to keep political differences from affecting commerce.
Maybe they should appeal to the French gummint to keep commerce from affecting political differences... But since that doesn't make any sense, the inverse would seem to make sense. So never mind.
The American backlash apparently is having little or no impact on business with Germany, the other major European country that actively opposed the war. A survey by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry of more than 300 German companies doing business in the United States found no effect.
Its obvious why France would be affected more than Germany. Anti-French feeling is stronger, and Germany doesn't sell the high-profile discretionary consumer items that France does. Who in their right mind would buy German wine?
Except for Moselles... mit prÀdikat, of course...
"We have seen French wines decreasing," Deutsch said. "We've seen stores take French wines off the floor of their store. We've seen major chains stop the advertising of French wines in their weekly ads." He reported substantial increases in sales of Italian, Australian and Spanish wines.
Glad to hear this! They should find that Italian, Australian and Spanish wines are better quality and value. Resulting in permanently lost customers.
I think Bourdeaux sales have already been replaced by Cabernets and such, so I don't think Chianti or Sangria are going to displace them. Australian wines, on the other hand, should see a nice spike, since they're in the club...
"It's a very , very deep reaction," said Carreras, who is French. "We would never have expected something so lasting. I think it has been accelerating even in the last four weeks."
Do I detect the power of the internet at work here?
He said he thinks that business will pick up only when Chirac stops making anti-U.S. statements. "We want to send the message to the French side to please do something. Or, if you don't want to do anything, then please shut up," Touton said.
Welcome to the 21st century! Where power is increasingly in the hands of the people. Chirac is a 20th century politician struggling to understand what is happening.
Posted by: Phil B 2003-04-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=13127