Buy Canadian

In response to U.S. tariffs and political rhetoric from the Trump administration, a significant consumer-led boycott of American products and travel has emerged, primarily in Canada and Europe, causing substantial economic repercussions for the United States.

Key points:

• Canadian Consumer Boycott: A "Buy Canada" movement has taken hold, with 71% of Canadian consumers intending to buy fewer American goods. This has forced retailers like Vince's Market to reduce U.S. produce from 70% to 30% of their stock and replace American products with Canadian or other international alternatives.
• Impact on U.S. Goods: The boycott is projected to cost the U.S. economy up to $90 billion. The U.S. alcohol industry has been hit especially hard, facing retaliatory tariffs and being pulled from Canadian shelves, leading to what one retailer described as "evaporated" sales.
• Decline in Tourism: Travel to the U.S. has sharply declined. Visits from Canada (the top source of U.S. tourism) have dropped significantly, as have visitors from Europe. This is resulting in billions of dollars in lost tourism revenue and hurting businesses in U.S. border states.
• Global Spread & Broader Impact: The movement has spread to Europe, where consumers are also rejecting U.S. brands like Tesla. This widespread backlash is contributing to a projected slowdown in global GDP growth.
• Long-Term Effects: While there is hope that trade tensions may eventually ease, the report suggests that the damage to American brands may be long-lasting and that consumer buying habits may have permanently shifted.

00:00 - This section here traditionally would have been filled with U.S. 00:03 - corn. Customers love it because it's a great product. 00:05 - What started as a big display has been shrunk. 00:08 - In response to U.S. 00:09 - tariffs and President Trump's threats to annex Canada, 00:11 - 71% of Canadian consumers say they intend to buy fewer American 00:15 - products this year. 00:16 - That's having an impact. 00:18 - The US economy could lose up to 0.3% of its GDP, 00:21 - or about $90 billion, in 2025, due to the boycott of 00:25 - American goods and the decline in foreign tourism. 00:28 - Giancarlo Marchi is the owner of Vince's Market, 00:31 - a Canadian grocery store chain with four locations. 00:34 - He's seen the backlash firsthand. 00:36 - Talk to me a bit about how the Bike Canada movement has affected you at 00:40 - the grocery store. 00:41 - Our customers are demanding from us as much Canadian product as 00:44 - possible. They're getting frustrated and upset when they see 00:47 - too much US product. 00:48 - We've obviously seen the very visible and visceral reaction from 00:51 - markets to US policies, but it's very interesting to see 00:55 - from the consumer side what impact it's having and these little acts 00:59 - of activism from consumers who have decided to turn their back on 01:02 - certain US products. 01:04 - If there was a Canadian version in an American version, 01:06 - we probably already delisted the American version in support of the 01:11 - Canadian product, because that's what our customers 01:12 - are looking for. 01:14 - In several countries, including Canada and Mexico, 01:16 - and some in the European Union, are responding to aggressive U.S. 01:19 - trade policies with retaliatory tariffs of their own. 01:22 - The US tariffs look like they're going to last for the duration of 01:26 - the Trump administration in one form or another, 01:29 - that's going to keep other countries kind of in a negative 01:32 - mood towards U.S. 01:34 - goods and services. 01:36 - So what impact is the boycott on U.S. 01:38 - goods and travel having? 01:39 - And is this just a political statement or a permanent shift in 01:43 - buying behavior? Cnbc went to Canada to find out. 01:47 - No text 01:48 - Vince Market got its start in Toronto in 1986 and serves about 01:53 - 30,000 customers weekly. 01:54 - March was when the real tariff threat was like all the news. 01:57 - We had Canada flags everywhere in the store. 02:00 - Markey says. Since then, his customers have moved decisively 02:03 - away from U.S. products. 02:04 - At the height of when we are out of Canada. 02:06 - Growing season, we could be upwards of 60% 70% American produce. 02:11 - Okay. Right now we're only running at about 30%. 02:14 - Canadian flags and labels marked domestic goods and aisles, 02:18 - while apps like Maple Scan help shoppers identify origin. 02:21 - You take a photo of a product, the app will scan what that product 02:24 - is, figure out what it is the label, 02:26 - look up information online about it. 02:29 - Essentially compile all that information together into a product 02:32 - page to kind of give you information about, 02:34 - like the company's history, who it's been owned by in the past 02:38 - versus now. What are its Canadian ties? 02:40 - But some items are hard to replace. 02:43 - Mangoes and pears you can get from different parts of the world when 02:45 - you get into things like Andrew and Bartlett pears. 02:47 - Right now, you can only get them from the United States. 02:50 - The most in demand and the hardest ones to replace from the US is 02:53 - typically berries, citrus and greens. 02:57 - Lettuce. 02:58 - If there is produce from the US and produce from Canada and they're the 03:02 - same, of course I'll go Canadian. 03:04 - Of course. 03:05 - We've always been very pro Canadian, 03:07 - even way before all this stuff happen. 03:10 - This just reinforced it. 03:11 - Canada is America's second largest food export market, 03:14 - worth $28.4 billion in 2024. 03:18 - The boycott has impacted other parts of the store, 03:20 - too. How is that affecting kind of these perceived American products 03:24 - like Coca-Cola or Lay's? 03:26 - Yeah, Coca-Cola and laser, great examples of global brands. 03:29 - They actually bottle Coke bottles in Canada about an hour and 30 03:32 - minutes north of here. Frito-lay uses Canadian potatoes. 03:35 - There would have been no identification of where Frito-Lay 03:38 - products were made. It would have been small and on the back. 03:41 - Once they realized that they were getting a bad rap, 03:44 - they went ahead and they added Made in Canada labels permanently onto 03:49 - the bags. 03:49 - American staples like wine, beer and spirits have seen the 03:52 - biggest change being wiped off Canadian shelves. 03:55 - Earlier this year, multiple Canadian provinces 03:57 - announced they were pulling American alcohol from their store 04:00 - shelves, and in March, Canada imposed a 25% tariff on all 04:04 - US alcohol products, a 25% tariff on distilled spirits. 04:08 - Imports from Mexico and Canada could cost more than 31,000 U.S. 04:12 - jobs. 04:13 - So we're in our wine section now. 04:15 - Our wine business, you know, roughly 35, 04:17 - 40% of our red wine sales is California cabs and blends. 04:21 - So that's $60,000 a week in sales that are just gone. 04:23 - They've evaporated from the United States. 04:26 - We're replacing it and we're replacing it with import wines from 04:29 - France, from South Africa, from Australia, 04:31 - from New Zealand in 2024. 04:34 - Canada was the US's top export market for alcohol, 04:37 - exporting, $435 million worth of wine, 04:40 - $221 million in distilled spirits, and $41 million in beer to Canada. 04:46 - The loss to the U.S. 04:48 - is a boon to Canada, with the Buy Canada movement adding 04:51 - roughly $10 billion to the country's economy. 04:54 - Giancarlo thinks if the tariff dispute is resolved, 04:56 - the boycott might ease, but it's unlikely every customer 04:59 - will go back to buying American. 05:01 - So I actually just had to respond to a customer from last week that 05:04 - came in and felt like we had too much American product, 05:07 - and they had told us they're not going to shop at our store anymore. 05:09 - And just like shelves are being cleared of American products, 05:12 - international travelers are clearing their travel plans to 05:15 - America, turning away from the country as a destination. 05:19 - No text 05:23 - More Canadians visit the US each year than from any other country. 05:27 - In 2024, 20 million Canadians visited the US, 05:30 - generating $20.5 billion in spending. 05:34 - But the flow is slowing. 05:35 - Online travel searches from Canada to the US dropped 50% this spring. 05:40 - If you look at Canadian drive traffic, 05:41 - it was down nearly 30% in March.

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