French group says 16 companies have asked EU to remove US cosmetics from retaliation list European beauty groups including L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics group, have lobbied the European Union to remove US cosmetics from its list of potential targets for trade retaliation, warning that the move could trigger retaliation against one of the region’s largest industries.
Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal’s chief executive, said he and 15 other beauty industry leaders, the Value of Beauty coalition, had warned EU officials this week that including cosmetics in countermeasures against US tariffs could provoke a damaging response.
“My only request to the people I met in Brussels was: look at the trade balance and don’t raise red flags about categories where we have more to lose than to gain,” Hieronimus told the Financial Times.
The EU announced its retaliatory measures last week in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, including a 99-page list of US goods that could be subject to tariffs from mid-April, including perfume, shampoo, skincare and cosmetics.
The list, covering goods worth about 26 billion euros, is part of a two-phase plan that also includes the restoration of measures introduced during Trump’s first term, such as levies on bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, that were initially set to take effect on April 1.
The European Commission, which has the power to decide the 27-nation bloc’s trade policy, on Thursday postponed the round of tariffs until April 13, seeking to “allow more time for discussions” with Washington. The move will also “ensure that we have a list of measures that is balanced and proportionately reflects the interests of EU businesses and consumers,” chief European Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho said on Friday.
The decision to postpone came at the behest of France and the country’s important alcohol industry to avoid Trump’s threat to impose 200% tariffs on EU alcohol imports, according to two EU officials with knowledge of the discussions.
A coalition of CEOs from L’Oreal and groups including Germany’s Beiersdorf and Switzerland’s Givaudan met EU officials in Brussels this week to warn the bloc against a “tit-for-tat” response over the levies on beauty products, Hieronymus said.
“If you’re going to include a category in a tariff war, you better make sure that category is a net importer, not a net exporter… If there is a tit-for-tat campaign on beauty products, Europe will be punished far more than American businesses and companies,” he said.
Vincent Warnery, chief executive of Beiersdorf, which owns brands such as Nivea and Coppertone, said: “We have repeatedly explained (to European officials) that it was a mistake to include beauty and cosmetics,” likening it to “shooting ourselves in the foot.”
“We will raise prices in the U.S. if we need to,” he added, “which will hurt American and Canadian consumers and our market share… So, leave us alone, enjoy the benefits we bring to the economy and don’t light fires where there is no need.”
Their comments came as German cosmetics retailer Douglas warned this week that trade tensions had accelerated a slowdown in demand for high-end cosmetics in Europe, sending its shares down 22% on Friday.
Europe is a major exporter of beauty and personal care products, directly employing nearly 2 million people across the EU and contributing about 180 billion euros to the bloc’s economic output in 2023, according to research from Oxford Economics.
The United States is one of the largest markets for groups such as L’Oréal. While the Paris-based company makes many of its products in the countries where they are sold, an ongoing trade war could result in some cost increases being passed on to consumers and disrupt the industry’s complex supply chains.
The group of beauty executives also came to Brussels to engage with EU officials to call for changes to the Municipal Wastewater Treatment Directive, which came into force in January and which the beauty industry says overly targets them.
They are also concerned about a possible ban on ethanol in cosmetics and are trying to raise awareness at EU level about how much reformulations to meet changing regulatory standards will eat into their innovation budgets.
Hieronymus said about a third of his researchers’ time and budget is spent on developing new regulations to comply with them. “I’m not saying all regulations are bad … we are determined to make changes where necessary. But sometimes you find absurdities.”