Trump’s ‘awful’ tariffs leave Italy’s luxury furniture sector scrambling to cushion blow
‘I will lose a lot of my clients. I think the tariffs are going to be enormously awful for trade,’ an interior designer says
Even the most sumptuous cushions cannot ease the pain that Italian luxury furniture makers – gathered at their annual fair – can already feel from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Some companies at the Milan Furniture Fair, which opened on Tuesday, compare the sudden levies to a rampaging wrecking crew. But many are also determined to keep offering their prestige output in the hope that buyers in the key US market will stick with them.
The United States is the Italian furniture industry’s second-biggest market after France, accounting for 2.2 billion euros (US$2.4 billion) of its 19.4 billion euros of exports in 2024, according to industry figures.
The “geopolitical” factors, such as the new tariffs, “will certainly have long-term repercussions,” the fair’s president Maria Porro said.
About 10 per cent of all Italy’s exports go to the US, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will go to Washington on April 17 in a bid to ease the impact of the 20 per cent tariffs imposed on European Union products.
Some furniture firms said it is too early to know how much damage can be expected from the tariffs that have shaken global markets.