Posted on 04/17/2003 10:21:04 AM PDT by conservativecorner
A US backlash against French products and businesses has started to bite, dashing hopes in Paris that appeals in the US to punish France economically for opposing the war in Iraq would go unheeded.
US importers of French wine are reporting sharp drops in sales in the past two months. Other French products also have been affected. The Federation of Wine Exporters has called a meeting for today to discuss how to respond. The nation's principal business federation took the unusual step of publicly acknowledging the problem, conceding on Tuesday that sales, recruitment and business contacts had been hurt.
It appealed to consumers and businesses to keep political differences from affecting commerce.
"Certain French enterprises are suffering today from the differences that have arisen among states over the Iraqi question," said the Movement of French Enterprises (Medef).
"It is necessary to say to those who are unhappy with ... French diplomacy that they are free to criticise, but they must keep products and services of our enterprises outside their quarrel."
Medef president Ernest-Antoine Seilliere said contracts had been lost because of anti-French feeling in the US.
The business federation provided no figures on the effect on French exports to the US, valued at $28.4 billion last year.
The French government and business community had hoped US francophobia would dissipate quickly without hurting trade. Both fear that French companies will be excluded from contracts in rebuilding Iraq.
The widespread view in Paris had been that calls in the US media and from some politicians for commercial retaliation against the French were having little or no effect.
The news that the boycott is significant will increase pressure on President Jacques Chirac to mend relations with Washington.
Chirac's government has toned down its anti-war talk and French officials have emphasised the need for pragmatism and moderation regarding sensitive issues such as how postwar Iraq is to be governed.
Chirac telephoned US President George W Bush on Tuesday. The leaders, speaking for the first time in two months, had what US aides called a "businesslike" conversation.
The French foreign ministry on Tuesday declined to comment on the French business federation's statement, saying the government did not respond to private declarations.
French officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, reiterated their previous position that they did not expect any significant reduction of business with the US. They noted that while US tourism in France was down about 20 percent, it had dropped even more in Britain, whose troops also fought in Iraq.
The US backlash is apparently having little or no impact on business with Germany, which also 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 US found no effect .
"It could be that France's position is considered to be fundamental and ours is considered to be more or less an accident, in connection with the elections we had [late last year]," said Michael Rogowski, the president of the Federation of German Industries in Berlin.
He referred to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's exploitation of anti-war sentiment to win re-election in September last year. German business groups and the German embassy in the US have scheduled a meeting in Washington next month with US businesses and politicians to try to make sure no difficulties arise in US-German trade.
US importers of French goods say the effect has been significant. Guillaume Touton, the president of wine distributor Monsieur Touton Selection in New York, says anti-French feeling cost him $500 000 in sales last month.
French wines usually account for two-thirds of his business.
"Typically the guy says: 'No, I don't want French wine. Give me Spanish wine, Italian wine'," says Touton.
WJ Deutsch & Sons, the leading US importer of French wines as measured by cases shipped, says its sales have dropped 10 percent in the past two months.
Bill Deutsch, its president, will not divulge specific figures but says his sales are down by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"We have seen French wines decreasing," Deutsch says. "We've seen stores take French wines off the floor of their store. We've seen major chains stop the advertising of French wines.''
He reports substantial increases in sales of Italian, Australian and Spanish wines.
Patricia Carreras, the president of IC&A, a home decor business in New York that imports exclusively French products, says sales have been down 40 percent to 50 percent since February.
Her small firm, with four employees, sells Limoges porcelain, hand-painted candles picturing Parisian scenes and other French-oriented products to big mail order houses and other large US companies.
"It's a very, very deep reaction," says Carreras, who is French. "We would never have expected something so lasting. I think it has been accelerating even in the last four weeks." The importers, angry and frustrated, say the government in Paris did not comprehend the effect of its war position on French businesses.
Touton has tried to fight the trend by pledging $1 for every case of wine he sells to the USO service support organisation to help US troops in Iraq. He has done it for two weeks but it hasn't helped much. He thinks business will pick up only when Chirac stops making anti-US statements.
"We want to send the message to the French to please do something. Or, if you don't want to do anything, then please shut up," Touton says. - The Washington Post
Look, No friggin' Frog is gonna dictate to me how to spend my own money. Period.
Would you please repeat the rest of your post. My mind wandered after the first word......;^)
You have mail.
Check your mail.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.