Domestic Footwear Manufacturers Won't Oppose TPP Deal
The Rubber and Plastic Footwear Manufacturers Association will not oppose congressional approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, said the association’s trade counsel, Marc Fleischaker of Arent Fox. The domestic manufacturer association, which includes New Balance among its members, has committed…
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to the U.S. Trade Representative won’t present a roadblock to the deal in light of the consideration USTR gave to the RPFMA’s views. USTR did a good job on TPP’s rules of origin, particularly the trade agreement’s tariff shift rules, said Fleischaker. However, some U.S. concessions went too far, according to Fleischaker, so the RPFMA won’t give its support to the deal either, instead remaining neutral. The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, which represents a number of large footwear companies that rely heavily on imports, recently outlined what it considered the benefits of the TPP (see 1511090064). The two footwear groups previously disagreed on some terms of the TPP during negotiations in 2013 (see 13082314).