Customs duties: Bernard Arnault judges “essential” an amicable agreement between EU and USA

The CEO of the world number one luxury LVMH Bernard Arnault believes “essential” that the European Union (EU) finds “an amicable (commercial) agreement with the United States”, under penalty of heavyly penalizing French and European companies, Thursday in an interview in Le Figaro.

“We cannot afford to scramble with the United States and embark on a trade war with the main market of our businesses,” he warns, noticing that it would be “very harmful to European industrialists, and in particular to French entrepreneurs”, according to the words published.

“Even if it may seem easily unbalanced, it will be preferable to the showdown,” insists Bernard Arnault in this interview published after a spokesperson for the European Commission assured Thursday that an agreement was “hand”.

Bernard Arnault says he count on a “pragmatic, efficient and friendly” outcome of discussions between Europeans and Americans.

Emmanuel Macron and the German leaders Friedrich Merz and Italian Giorgia Meloni seem “very aware of that,” observes the boss of LVMH.

His son Antoine recently had the privileged relationship of Bernard Arnault with US President Donald Trump. “You may have noticed that in addition to his multiple caps, he recently became a diplomat,” he said in June when he replaced his father at the foot raised at the Living Room.

The billionaire has also chained the meetings in recent months to avoid a trade war between the United States and Europe, meeting the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni as well as the French president Emmanuel Macron, while talking “regularly” with Donalld Trump, specifies the Wall Street Journal which also spoke with Bernard Arnault.

“10% is better than 30%”

“I do my best to reach an agreement with the Americans, in order to avoid being taken in a trade war, which would be extremely prejudicial to businesses,” he said to the American newspaper.

“I think that President Trump is open in search of a solution. He gave me the impression of being perfectly aware of the situation (…) That said, as you know, he wants results. If he does not obtain results, he will do what he has promised,” adds the CEO.

For LVMH, a customs duty of 15% “would be a good result”, according to financial director Cécile Cabanis: the consequences would not be too damaging on “the confidence and morale” of customers. LVMH estimates that it could compensate for such a rate with a price increase and optimization of production, especially in the United States. “Obviously if it’s 10% it’s better than 30%,” she added.

“The most complicated will be for the wine and spirits division, where today we are not in a scheme where we can increase prices,” she noticed during an interview with press agencies, especially since cognac, certain wines and champagne cannot be produced in the United States unlike fashion and leather goods.

The American market represents 25% of LVMH sales which will open in the United States a new Louis Vuitton workshop, its flagship brand, in Dallas at the end of 2026 or in early 2027. The group already has three workshops Louis Vuitton and four workshops from the American brand Tiffany.

Regarding China, another crucial market for LVMH, Bernard Arnault praised Dan Le Figaro the fact that the main cognac exporters had finally escaped at the beginning of the month of an increase in customs duties in return for an increase in their prices of around 10%.

“It is very important because the United States and China represent 80% of the outlets for cognac,” he observes, stressing that President Emmanuel Macron had “worked a lot” to concretize this agreement “carried by the sector”.

AFP