EU's luxury producers less concerned by 30% U.S. tariffs

While some European companies fear the 30 percent tariffs imposed by the U.S. will slash sales, manufacturers of luxury goods like Vienna's premium glassware manufacturer Lobmeyr are less worried due to the quality of their merchandise – and wealth of their customers.

"Of course with a luxury product the impact won't be that strong," Lobmeyr's managing partner Leonid Rath told CGTN.

For over two centuries, Lobmeyr chandeliers have decorated landmark buildings across the globe, from Habsburg palaces to New York's Met Opera. 

Even though a fifth of the company's glassware goes to U.S. customers, Rath insists Washington's tariffs won't affect the company – but will hit its consumers.

"In the end it will be about raising the prices," says Rath, who is sure the American customers are going to pay these increased prices.

Mahdi Godsi, economist at Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, confirms Rath's positive outlook. 

"If you manage to produce luxury goods and export them to the U.S., I don't think that a 30 percent tariff would change the demand for such products," Godsi told CGTN.

In other sectors, tariffs threaten jobs

However, Austria does not only sell high-end decorations to well-heeled customers. Machineries and pharmaceuticals make up the biggest share of exports... and these are sectors where price increases significantly hurt competitiveness.

If Austrian companies are able to continue selling a significant amount of goods to U.S. customers, a 30 percent tariff will still have serious consequences. European commercial bank UniCredit predicts Austria's GDP would drop by almost half a percentage point in the next few years, with 15,000 jobs lost.

It remains to be seen whether Brussels can negotiate a trade deal before Washington's 30 per cent tariff kicks in on August 1.

"The current negotiations failed because the EU is somehow polarised with far-right governments in the EU that are supporting Trump and with other countries that are not supporting Trump's policy they do not want to appease Trump... but in the end we need to see a solution," Godsi says.

For Lobmeyr, the glass remains half full. The family-owned company hopes to sell its mouth-blown products for another 200 years, to the U.S. and beyond.