To Weather ‘America First’ Fallout, American Brands Abroad Must Embrace Flexibility Amid Political, Trade Uncertainty

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2025 — On February 21, President Trump issued a National Security Policy Memorandum, or NSPM, announcing the Administration’s “America First”, with the task cut out to boost American economy.

Almost six months later, US is at the crossroads, on one side the government showing a resolve on its nation-first approach and simultaneously corporate America making all-out efforts to retain its stronghold world over.

The America First policy has undoubtedly drawn criticism and created an anti-US narrative but the challenge this approach poses to the Chinese dominance has found appreciation from certain quarters such as the UAE.

Trade experts suggest that in a cross-section of sectors, China has for a long held an undue advantage, owing to its exclusivity of key products or services.

A case in point is the lithium-ion batteries, a key component for electric vehicles on which China has often played an iron fist tactic, depriving its non-allies of its supplies, thus choking their production of EVs.

Tesla is one of the players to be hit hard by a global outrage against tariffs, with its European sales seeing a major dip. However, President Trump's EU trade deal that would see slashing tariffs is likely to make Tesla among the first big winners.

Even though Chinese EV maker BYD has registered higher sales numbers than Tesla, developing EV markets have welcomed the Elon Musk led brand and these geographies show long-term gains for the EV maker.

Can American Brands Retain Market Leadership?

The trade war has led to reciprocal trade measures that have hit American exporters but a common belief that American brands transcend America’s politics has played a major role.

While consumers still value American products, threat perception has grown that foreign markets will shun America as a trade partner and embrace alternative product sources.

This essentially means that maintaining a stronghold in overseas markets would need the US multinational companies (MNCs) to adopt a nuanced approach, one that has a continuing focus on more localization overseas while also being cautiously optimistic. The decisive factor to maintain identity of “Brand America” is to realize its true power in each market.

Besides, cultivating and reinvigorating brand goodwill and by and large projecting an alienation of American businesses from the country’s politics would hold the key.

The Consumer Brands Association has recently issued a statement welcoming Trump administration’s framework agreement with the EU on reciprocal trade.

President and CEO Melissa Hockstad said consumer brands applaud the Trump administration and EU leaders for advancing trade negotiations that will reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers for American companies.

“The administration’s recognition of unavailable natural resources from the EU is a critical step in strengthening common-sense America First trade policy that will benefit U.S. manufacturers and consumers,” said Melissa.

Broad Points of Global Survey You Should Know

Survey’s Sample Size: With an objective to give American companies a deep insight of what has been the impact of “America First”, Weber Advisory conducted several in-depth one-on-one interactions with public and corporate affairs market leaders around the world.

The experts surveyed corporates collectively representing decades of experience guiding Fortune 500 companies and other iconic American brands through geopolitical and reputational risk, who shared first-hand observations about how American policy and politics are shaping the business context in 15 global markets, as per a Weber.

Contours of Report: The resulting report, “How ‘America First’ is Impacting American Enterprise Abroad: What it Means to Be and Buy American in 2025” offers insights from these conversations and answers a fundamental question of what strategic pivots American corporations should consider to protect their brand and reputation overseas amid new power dynamics in Washington, DC.

The key insights form the report reveal that there is a vast global perception that American brands transcend America’s politics. The report cautions America Inc of the growing competition suggesting that “America First” has emotions running high abroad and telling American brands about the need to localize their global playbooks.

Guidelines for Corporate America: This report aims to equip C-suite leaders of American brands with a robust trend assessment and early warning system to interpret America First narratives and vibe shifts through local market perspectives at the intersection of business, policy, media and culture. It offers a grounded analysis, not just of where reputational pressure is building, but of how signals can guide a proactive strategy.

Brand America stays strong overseas by balancing national priorities with local market realities and projecting resilience beyond politics.

Inputs from Saqib Malik

Editing by David Ryder