L’Oréal and an alliance of leaders from the biggest companies in the beauty industry have called on the EU to leave cosmetics out of retaliatory tariffs against the US.
Europe is planning countermeasures after US President Donald Trump introduced a 25% duty on imports of steel and aluminium from the bloc.
Cosmetics are among the list of more than 1,700 types of goods which could now be subject to tariffs when exported from the US to the EU.
Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal, told The Financial Times: “My only ask to the people I’ve met [in Brussels] is to say: look at the balance of trade and don’t put a red flag on a category where we have more to lose than to win.”
The EU, which represents 27 countries across the continent, is currently consulting on the measures which affect £26bn worth of goods.
It includes the resumption of duty on goods like whiskey and Harley-Davidson motorbikes, which were brought in during President Trump’s first term.
The leader threatened tariffs of 200% on alcohol coming from the EU to the US in response, prompting the bloc to push back their introduction to April.
Further tariffs are proposed on items such as perfumes, shampoo, skin care and make-up.
At a meeting with EU officials last week, top executives from some of the biggest beauty companies called for greater influence on policy.
The Value of Beauty is an alliance that also includes giants Beiersdorf, Puig and Givaudan.
The alliance is calling for the EU to have regular dialogue with the beauty and personal care industry which adds €180bn to GDP in the EU and supports 3.2 million jobs.
These businesses export €26bn worth of goods, making it the biggest exporter in the world in this sector, according to a report from Oxford Economics published to coincide with the meeting.
Hieronimus told the publication that the group also warned against a potential “tit-for-tat” response to levies on beauty products.
He said: “If you’re going to put a category in the tariff war, you’d better make sure that this category is a net importer rather than net exporter . . . If there is this tit-for-tat thing on beauty, it’s going to penalise Europe much more than American businesses and companies.”
Vincent Warnery, chief executive of Beiersdorf, told the FT that the group told EU officials that including beauty and cosmetics in tariffs would be a mistake.
He said the firm, which owns Nivea and Copperton, would increase prices “if needed” but that it would hurt consumers in the US and Canada and the company’s market share.
Hieronimus previously said L’Oréal could avoid the worst of the tariffs as the group produces most of the goods that it sells in the US in the country.
Speaking to CNBC in early March before the escalation, he said that should cosmetics become a category with tariffs that it would “work around it” and that they were manageable “as long as it doesn’t become a global tit-for-tat.”