“My daughter was born in Denmark. Will young men boycott her?” A reader addressed this question to me after everyone had expressed their opinions about boycotting anything related to Denmark.
Boycotting Danish products has harmed a number of Saudi investors. They are local investors who sell local products and brands in cooperation with Danish companies or who use Danish raw materials in manufacturing. These investors are suffering and this will soon affect the national economy.
I can fully understand why people boycott Danish products as an outlet for their resentment and anger. But what I don’t understand is how we can boycott Saudi products that are manufactured using Danish raw material. The biggest losers are Saudi products and merchandise.
I fail to understand how shopping centers and hypermarkets can appoint themselves judges to decide what is and what is not Danish. They in fact gave themselves the right to boycott certain Saudi and Arab companies that invest in our economy and which manufacture certain products in Saudi Arabia. These products help employ Saudi youth and ensure their financial wellbeing. The shopping centers exceeded their bounds and led the way in announcing unqualified and unfair judgments.
The situation demands involvement by the Commerce Ministry in order to put an end to the intentional damage which is bad for the national economy. Shopping centers have the freedom to reject imported Danish products, but they have no right to judge our national products unfairly.
