- A European Central Bank survey shows some Europeans are ready to ditch US products.
- 44% say they prefer to switch away from US brands, regardless of tariff levels.
- President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff baseline on most trading partners, including the EU.
As trade tensions simmer between the US and Europe, Europeans aren't just bracing for higher prices — they're rethinking purchases from American brands altogether.
A new survey by the European Central Bank, released Wednesday, suggests that President Donald Trump's tariffs on EU products could trigger a major, long-lasting change in European consumer habits.
The ECB's March Consumer Expectations survey, which polled roughly 19,000 respondents, asked how likely they were to buy non-US alternatives under hypothetical tariffs of 5%, 10%, or 20%.
Across all scenarios, the median "substitution score" was 80 out of 100, signaling a strong willingness to switch away from US products and services.
44% of respondents cited "preference" rather than price as the main reason for abandoning US products. For this group, the median substitution score shot up to 95 and remained unchanged regardless of how steep the tariff was.
Even more unexpectedly, higher-income households were the most likely to switch, likely motivated more by preference than price concerns.
"It seems that the mere presence of a tariff would prompt a large share of consumers to reconsider what they buy," the ECB's blogpost said, adding that this may signal a "possible long-term structural shift in consumer preferences away from US products and brands."
The survey comes just weeks after Trump announced a 20% baseline tariff on most trading partners, including the EU. The EU then imposed 25% retaliatory tariffs, but later, after Trump cut the tariff on Europe to 10% until July, it paused them for 90 days.
However, this reprieve hasn't stopped the EU from considering broader retaliatory options.
These include finding alternative defense suppliers, rolling out stronger counter-tariffs, and reducing dependence on US tech and intellectual property protections, according to more than two dozen government officials in Europe and Canada familiar with the discussions.
Meanwhile, US brands are already feeling the pinch. Tesla's sales in Europe dropped 42% in the first two months of 2025, and US whiskey and travel to America have also seen consumer boycotts.
