FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Euro zone consumers are happy to ditch U.S. products if they are hit by tariffs in the course of a tit-for-tat trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, a European Central Bank survey showed.
The ECB’s Consumer Expectations Survey, conducted in March before Trump had even announced, and later paused his tariff blitz, unexpectedly showed a change in preference regardless of any price increase.
The 19,000 consumers were asked if they would look for alternatives to U.S. products if an import tax of 5%, 10% or 20% was imposed by the United States and, in retaliation, by the European Union.
“Results show that consumers are very willing to actively move away from U.S. products and services,” the ECB said in a blog post.
The median substitution score was 80 on a scale where zero indicates no willingness to buy alternatives to U.S. products and 100 signifies a strong one.
When asked for their motivations, 43.7% of respondents cited a change in preference, a bigger share than the 38.1% who said this was down to prices.
Accordingly, the willingness to substitute was greater for higher-income households.
“Our findings indicate that, in the current context, consumers’ reactions could therefore considerably deviate from standard textbook consumption patterns in response to higher tariffs,” the ECB said.
Only 8.9% of respondents said there was a lack of alternatives, which could prove a sore point if EU tariffs were actually imposed on products such as digital services.
(Reporting by Francesco Canepa; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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