| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Americans Just Say ’Non’ to French Products |
| 2003-02-18 |
| (First post. Apologies if I toggle it wrong) NEW YORK — Jokes about France are plentiful lately, but many Americans aren't laughing at the European country's resistance to using force with Iraq -- and are fighting back by closing their wallets. Many Americans have decided to boycott French products such as wine and cheese, in an effort to hurt the country's economy. Fromage.com, a French cheese distributor, reported that its sales to the United States have gone down 15 percent in the past two weeks. Some U.S. eateries are no longer offering French wines. And a restaurant in North Carolina has even changed the name of its fries. That's what I call a good start. Neal Rowland, who owns Cubbie's restaurant in Beaufort, N.C., said he decided to put stickers that say "Freedom" over the word "French" on all his menus after he watched France back away from support for war in Iraq. "Since the French are backing down, French fries and French everything needs to be banned," he told Foxnews.com in a telephone interview. "Fry sales have really gone up. People who eat them now say, 'Freedom never tasted so good.'" Next step: call the place a "pub" or "eatery" instead of "restaurant." If the backlash is strong enough, it could impact the French economy -- American trade with France tops $30 billion a year. "Well, if they prefer to eat American food, it is entirely their problem," Guillaume Parmentier, the head of the French Centre on the United States, told the Canadian new service CBC.ca. "But seriously. This never works. Boycotts work when there are grave human rights violations or something like that." Human rights violations? What do you call Evian at $3.50 a bottle? But Boris Marchand-Tonnel of the French-U.S. chamber of commerce in Paris played down the threat. "Maybe in a few New York restaurants, a few clients will refuse to order French wine," he told The Guardian. "But it's peanuts against the overall picture, it's really just symbolic." "Cheeze! It's New Year's and they're drinking Boones! Zoot alors!" I say we take the cheese-eaters up on the "symbolism" of a boycott. Any takers? |
| Posted by:therien |
| #2 Hold the left mouse button down and drag to highlight the text, then click on "Hilite" |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-02-19 03:48:03 |
| #1 OK, the highlighter toggle needs to go *before* the sentence rather than before *and* after, yes? Sorry... |
| Posted by: therien 2003-02-18 23:36:21 |