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A group of beauty companies, including industry leader L’Oréal, hope the European Union will exclude American cosmetic goods when it rolls out extensive tariffs next month.
L’Oréal, the Paris-based company that owns brands like Lancôme, Maybelline, and Cera Ve, has a large presence in the U.S.—the North American region took in €11.8 billion in sales last year.
However, new tariffs could hamper beauty-related trade significantly, as the region has a significant upper hand. In France alone, beauty imports from the U.S. amount to $500 million, while exports are worth roughly €2.5 billion, according to an industry number cited by Reuters.
“If there is this tit-for-tat thing on beauty, it’s going to penalize Europe much more than American businesses and companies,” L’Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus told the Financial Times. He added that he urged the officials he met in Brussels last week to look at the balance of trade before subjecting entire categories to the upcoming tariff.
L’Oréal’s Hieronimus was joined by 15 other beauty executives who warned the EU that its tariff countermeasures could hurt their operations.
“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,” he said.
When U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, the EU published a 99-page list of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods earlier in March. This includes shampoos, perfumes, aftershaves, sunscreens, and more.
Beauty and personal care products contribute €180 billion to the bloc’s GDP and employ 2 million people, according to Oxford Economics. Germany and France are the region’s biggest cosmetics markets—and are home to Beiersdorf and L’Oréal, respectively.
Beauty comes at a cost
Two-thirds of Hamburg-based Beiersdorf’s American business comes from beauty products made outside the U.S., primarily in Mexico. The company is navigating through what tariffs could mean while continuing to serve the burgeoning U.S. market, including increasing inventories and hiking prices.
The U.S. market has been especially attractive for beauty companies amid a luxury slowdown. The country has emerged as a bright spot as consumer spending has picked up.
Europe is a heavyweight in cosmetics in its own right. Still, small and medium-size U.S. companies benefit from exporting to the region due to low import tariffs on personal care goods.
Any level of tariffs under the Trump administration was bound to stress the beauty industry’s global supply chain. Establishing production from scratch for some of the more specialized raw materials used in making cosmetics can be tricky—and expensive.