Unilateralism hurts U.S. businesses

There has been a general rule of thumb that war is good for business: more production, more export, more people put to work, new opened-up markets and hence more money to be made. Even on my shuttle ride from the D.C. airport to my hotel, another passenger happily explained to me that his own food brokerage company for the military is thriving because of the war in Iraq. The question remains: Whose business is war good for?
As we have heard for the past few months, and some of us may be experiencing it ourselves, this looks to be the first presidency since Herbert Hoover to have a net job loss. Additionally, many American companies that sell and service overseas are experiencing a drop in sales.

FOX News surprised many viewers with a business report yesterday that portrayed President Bush's foreign policy as bad for business. GMI, a market-research firm, based in Seattle, inteviewed 8000 citizens in countries such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the U.K. Nearly 20 percent of foreign consumers say they will avoid select U.S. products due to America's position in foreign affairs. "The more closely international consumers associate companies with the U.S.," the study says, "the higher the likelihood they’ll avoid purchasing their brands in the near future." For instance, almost half of the panel interviewed associate Mattel’s Barbie doll with America while roughly 10% tie back Kleenex to the United States. (a recent Reuters article cites worldwide Barbie sales fell 13% in Q3 2004).

Unfortunately, GMI also discovered that 55 percent of Japanese and 36 percent of Germans are less likely to visit the U.S. on business or leisure today than before America's so-called global war on terrorism. Barbie's fate in itself might be irrelevant; however the frustration of our allies certainly is not and the subsequent job loss that may occur from lowered profits for American companies selling overseas.