‘I tried to copy the Danes and boycott the USA. It only lasted a few seconds’ | EUROtoday

When my editor approached me with the concept of boycotting American merchandise for twenty-four hours, it appeared simple.

The Canadians have been doing it. So have the Danes, utilizing a brand new app that helps to determine American-made merchandise within the grocery store to allow them to be tossed apart in anger after Donald Trump’s threats towards Greenland.

The fact is: I failed in seconds.

“Sure thing,” I responded to the fee… on Slack, which is owned by American software program large Salesforce.

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When Trump declared final month that navy intervention was “an option” for buying management of Greenland, an autonomous territory belonging to Denmark, it despatched shockwaves throughout Europe and the Nato alliance. The controversy noticed hundreds of livid Danes march by way of Copenhagen, chanting “Greenland is not for sale”.

The American president had struck a nerve in a rustic the place such protests virtually by no means occur. But amidst the fury, tech builders in Denmark noticed a possibility.

UdenUSA and Made O’Meter, each out there on the App Store, can scan merchandise and lay out the place they’ve come from and by whom they’re owned. In the previous few weeks, they’ve been serving to Danes to keep away from buying American merchandise.

After falling on the first hurdle of my boycott, I set about downloading the apps on my telephone: desirous to show to Trump that Europe doesn’t want the US anymore.

An preliminary scan gave me a powerful begin: my garments got here from British retailer Marks & Spencer and Japanese firm UniQlo. In my hand I used to be holding a Samsung telephone, made by South Korea.

But that is the place issues took a flip for the more serious. I realised I used to be taking down my notes in a Google Doc on an Apple MacBook Pro, which was linked to a Dell monitor and a HP mouse: all American merchandise.

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My dilemma illustrated how US know-how holds a uniquely dominant place within the international market.

The iPhone, made by tech behemoth Apple, is the most well-liked smartphone within the UK. In 2025, based on an Ofcom report, greater than half (54 per cent) of UK smartphone customers aged 16 or over had been utilizing an Apple iPhone, whereas 45 per cent used an Android, which is primarily made by Google. Streaming large Netflix is utilized by a unprecedented 17.6 million houses within the UK – round a 3rd of your entire inhabitants.

After stepping out of my workplace, I made a decision to start out afresh. All I needed to do was block American apps equivalent to Instagram, Facebook, X and WhatsApp – a troublesome endeavor for a screen-addicted Gen Z man. Instead, I’d learn a British e-book, or watch a British group play soccer (a British sport) on a South Korean LG tv display screen.

Content with my technique, I turned on my TV to observe my membership Chelsea battle it out towards Italian membership Napoli within the Champions League on TNT Sports.

Suddenly the naivety of my plan hit me. TNT Sports, previously referred to as BT Sport, is the truth is owned by large American leisure firm Warner Bros Discovery. And my very own group is owned by a California-based personal fairness agency and an American billionaire.

My state of affairs highlighted the creeping dominance of British sport by American large enterprise. Four of the nation’s greatest golf equipment – Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea – at the moment are all majority US-owned, along with Fulham, Bournemouth and Everton. Given the centrality of soccer to English nationwide life, the influence of this shouldn’t be underestimated.

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A quick journey to the grocery store the following morning painted a barely much less bleak image. Around 60 per cent of the meals we devour within the UK is sourced domestically, whereas 40 per cent is imported – the overwhelming majority of that coming from the European Union. Spam and Quaker oats, I’m happy to say, aren’t on my weekly buying record.

Celebrating my small win, I headed to my native PureGym as my boycott neared its finish. Only later did I uncover that my month-to-month fitness center subscription was being paid into the deep pockets of US personal fairness agency Leonard Green & Partners, who acquired the corporate in 2017.

My unsuccessful boycott mirrored an unavoidable actuality of European life. In so some ways, we nonetheless rely on America. Despite all of the powerful speak of “strategic autonomy” in European capitals, the American economic system nonetheless determines – to a big diploma – the success of our personal. The US stays the UK’s largest single-country buying and selling associate general, accounting for round 17–18% of our whole commerce in items and providers, based on authorities figures.

Later within the week, I travelled to Germany: a rustic whose tradition and economic system can be formed largely by America. After being free of the shackles of my boycott, I had just one vacation spot in thoughts: McDonald’s.