United we are strong!

[Paul]

I just got back from a holiday in northeastern United States and Canada. Fantastic piece of the world! Loved it.
During this holiday I visited many supermarkets and shops. Of course, as I always do, I went looking for stuff that doesn't come from China.
Oh man, how I feel sorry for you Americans and Canadians. In the US and Canada there is much more Made in China on the shelves than in Europe.
Sure, also here in Europe the shops are flooded with junk from China, but finding alternatives is usually not that difficult (except for a couple of product groups).
I noticed that if something is in stores in the US or Canada that is not from China, it is usually from the US or Mexico, not much from Europe.
In Europe, however, we have an advantage that we have many more neighbouring countries that can produce relatively cheap.
Here the shelves are full of clothing from, for example, Portugal, Morocco and Turkey. And daily products, toys, and anything else from Western countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Spain, etc..
And the somewhat cheaper mass-produced products often come from Poland, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, etc.
I have hardly seen these products in the US and Canada. In fact, sometimes I saw brands that are made in Europe here and in the US and Canada they come from China. This is the case, for example, with T-Fal, which is called Tefal in Europe. In Europe this mostly made in France, in the US and Canada it is always made in China!
I don't understand why the US and Canada do not buy and produce in Europe more often instead of getting almost everything from China. The US government cries out that China is the big threat (which I fully agree with) and then they allow the citizens to become completely dependent on Chinese junk.
I would personally avoid shops like Walmart, everything seems to be of Chinese origin here. Fortunately, I did find a few stores that had more NMIC products. But as I said, I really don't see much stuff from the (European) countries that make up a large part of the products on the shelves here.

How wonderful would it be if we democratic countries started to work together much more than is done now.
It has become normal for shops to immediately go to Asia and especially China for production or to get inferior cheap products.
We should sell more made in USA here in Europe and you Americans and Canadians should focus more on European stuff.
United we are strong!

[Carsten Hoberg]

I have to add, in the situation the world is in we should especially support our NATO partners and even more the countries which are in the front line if China really risks a third world war: Taiwan, India, Korea and Japan. Ever seen a political map of Japan? Russia surrounds them on three sides, and still Japan stands up against Russia and supports the Ukraine without further ado! This is so heroic while the west acts so cowardish! I'm glad the EU signed a contract with Japan to secure the EU's need of chips because on the other hand it secures Japan's sales of chips as well. And while two of the chip factories in Japan will be Taiwanese-owned, it will help Taiwan also.