France has long been the world’s biggest exporter of cosmetics and personal care products, and in 2024 most of the exports (40%) went to other European countries, accruing around €10bn, according to the French cosmetics trade association FEBEA (La Fédération des Entreprises de la Beauté.)
“Our know-how, which cannot be relocated, remains a major asset,” said a spokesperson for FEBEA.
“Defending Made in France’s place in the world requires a concerted, proactive and ambitious strategy.”
“A trade war only has losers”
The trade association said it was disappointed that the US administration has decided to introduce an additional 20% customs duty on imports of goods from the European Union.
“This measure will necessarily have an impact on the French cosmetics industry,” it said, and highlighted that the US accounts for 13% of the sector’s exports and “is thus a major trading partner for French beauty companies.”
“Until now, transatlantic relations in this sector have been based on a balanced framework, with no reciprocal customs duties. They are part of a long tradition of commercial cooperation, cross-investment and industrial facilities on both sides of the Atlantic,” continued the spokesperson. “In this respect, the United States will remain an important market for French cosmetics.”
“The trade war has only losers: it penalises American consumers, faced with reduced supply or higher prices, while weakening European companies through reduced competitiveness or lower margins,” continued FEBEA.
The trade association noted that we “are probably at the beginning of a commercial escalation” but that “it is essential not to respond with a logic of one-upmanship, but to build a united, calm and proportionate European response,” adding that a “community-wide response” i needed from the EU.
“Risks accentuating competitive pressure on other world markets”
FEBEA also noted that other cosmetics exporting countries such as South Korea, Japan and China are all affected and “this reconfiguration risks accentuating competitive pressure on other world markets.”
The trade war is first and foremost an economic war: the competitiveness of the European cosmetics industry – and of the French cosmetics industry in particular – is at stake. Our response must be “industrial as well as diplomatic, and conducted on the scale of the European continent.”