The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The US has suspended plans to impose tariffs of 25 percent on French luxury goods, due to take effect this week in response to France’s tax on big tech companies like Facebook and Amazon.
The US Trade Representative (USTR) threatened to impose the tariffs last year following France’s decision to impose a 3 percent levy on certain revenue from big technology companies.
A list of imports from France worth $1.3 billion would have been subject to the additional 25 percent tariff. The list included beauty products like lip and eye makeup preparations as well as handbags with an “outer surface of reptile leather,” according to a statement on the US Trade Representative’s website posted in July 2020.
In suspending the French tariffs, the USTR said in a statement posted to its website on Thursday that investigations into digital-services taxes, or DSTs, in other countries “have significantly progressed, but have not yet reached a determination on possible trade actions.”
“A suspension of the tariff action in the France DST investigation will promote a coordinated response in all of the ongoing DST investigations,” the statement said in part.
The world’s biggest luxury conglomerate is counting on China’s reopening to boost sales after quarterly growth slowed to a single-digit rate for the first time since 2020.
This week LVMH will report results, and executives may offer clues about its megabrands’ next steps under new leadership. That plus what else to watch for this week.
A performance by pop superstar Rosalía made Louis Vuitton’s menswear show a memorable spectacle, even as the brand has yet to name a successor to designer Virgil Abloh.
From Prada to Dior, fashion’s embrace of Korean pop stars is going into overdrive as brands look to Asian consumers to fuel growth.