A new edition of our Leatherbiz Market Intelligence newsletter went live on May 27. By Leatherbiz.

It reflects on the possible impact of a new tariff announcement from the US, threatening levels of 50% on all imports from the European Union from the beginning of June.

On May 23, US president, Donald Trump, threatened to impose a 50% tariff on goods imported from the European Union, with this increased rate to take effect on June 1.

He said trade discussions with the EU were “going nowhere” and that, in the face of this lack of progress, he recommended “a straight 50% tariff” on products coming into the US from any of the 27 European Union countries.

“There is no doubt that many leather products will be affected by this,” the Leatherbiz Market Intelligence report says. “In particular, this news is likely to cause unrest among French luxury goods manufacturers, fashion companies in Italy, furniture manufacturers throughout Europe and, of course, the automotive industry.”