The boss of the luxury company called on European governments to negotiate to find an agreement with Washington on customs duties.
The luxury giant LVMH will be “necessarily led to increase (its) American productions”, if the negotiations between the EU and the United States lead to high customs duties, said its CEO Bernard Arnault this Thursday, calling for European leaders to “negotiate intelligently” with Washington.
“If we end up with high customs duties, (…) we will have to increase our American productions, necessarily, to avoid customs duties,” warned Bernard Arnault.
“It should not be said that it is the fault of the companies. It will be Brussels’s fault if it were to happen,” he said during the General Assembly of the Group shareholders.
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The boss of LVMH also said he had “the impression for the moment that our British friends are more concrete in the progress of negotiations”.
“A bureaucratic power”
However, “all this deserves the greatest attention on the part of governments in Europe, in particular the French government because there will be dramatic social consequences if an agreement could not be found, especially for our viticulture (…)”.
Before the shareholders of his group, Bernard Arnault was very critical of the EU. She “is not led by political power,” he said, “but by a bureaucratic power that spends her time editing regulations”, making “not easy” the creation of a “free trade area” between the United States and the EU he calls for his wishes.
The luxury giant LVMH manufactures mainly in France, but has already started to open workshops in the United States, Texas, since 2019. The group currently has 18 workshops in France and three in the United States without counting the workshops of the American jeweler Tiffany & CO bought in 2021 by the company of Bernard Arnault.
