Most Domestic Footwear Producers Back TPP
Most domestic footwear manufacturers indicated their support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman March 7 (here), adding another major endorsement of the pact from the U.S. footwear and apparel industry. The American Apparel…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
and Footwear Association and Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America announced their support for the agreement earlier this year (see 1602010017 and 1601130010). The heads of Wolverine Worldwide, H.H. Brown Shoe Company, Elan-Polo, and LaCrosse Footwear said in the letter that TPP will add new jobs in retail and port logistics, trucking, and warehousing. The executives said U.S. footwear tariffs, which average over 10 percent and can reach as high as 67.5 percent, only serve as an extra supply chain cost and a hidden tax on U.S. consumers. High international tariffs from countries like Japan inhibit the companies’ ability to export shoes to new consumers, the executives said. “We strive to make the most innovative products and provide the greatest value to consumers, but struggle with a complex and outdated tariff system here in the U.S. and abroad,” the business leaders said. TPP would provide $450 million in savings in the first year of implementation and $6 billion throughout the first decade, and would lower trade barriers, which could translate to “meaningful growth” in footwear exports, they said.