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.”
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“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.
After growing the brand’s annual sales to nearly €2.5 billion, the star designer has been locked in a thorny contract negotiation with owner LVMH that could lead to his exit, sources say. BoF breaks down what Slimane brought to Celine and what his departure could mean.
Balenciaga’s deputy CEO Laura du Rusquec will replace Andrea Baldo as the Danish brand aims to elevate its image.
This week, more luxury brands will report first-quarter results, offering clues as to how broad and how deep the downturn is going to get.
Fashion brands are edging in on the world’s largest gathering of design professionals and their wealthy clients, but design companies still dominate the sector, which is ripe for further consolidation, reports Imran Amed.