On 9th January Donald Trump met Arnault and Chinese businessman Jack Ma, President of e-commerce giant Alibaba. Both the latter said they are ready to invest more in the USA.During the meeting, Bernard Arnault mentioned the possibility of “enlarging” the Louis Vuitton workshops, seeing the success met by some of its products currently manufactured in California, by adding output capacity “either in Carolina or in Texas.”

On Thursday, answering questions at the press conference for the presentation of LVMH’s 2016 results, Bernard Arnault stated that “what is most important is to assess the worldwide impact of the changes taking place in [US] economic policy, which for the time being are very well received in the USA.””I think there are many more positive elements than negative ones,” he said, adding that “some of the measures that have been taken, such as lowering taxes, streamlining regulations and increasing major public works, are indeed very promising. [What will happen] afterwards, we do not know.””Besides, most of the people in charge of economic planning are great professionals, and having top-level bankers in positions such as these should work, this is my opinion,” he concluded.The USA are LVMH’s main international market: in 2016, 27% of the luxury goods giant’s sales were generated there, compared to 26% in Asia (Japan excluded). Last year, LVMH’s US revenue grew by 7%.Donald Trump has made the creation of more manufacturing jobs in the USA one of his leitmotifs, and has notably pledged to penalise US corporations which delocalise abroad.