Footwear Industry Bands Together Against Trump Tariffs
Five of America’s leading footwear associations have banded together against a huge hike in tariffs. The increase happened three weeks ago when levies on $200 billion worth of Chinese import product were raised from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.
Officials from the Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America, American Apparel & Footwear Association, Sports & Fitness Industry Association, Rubber & Plastic Footwear Manufacturers Association, and the Outdoor Industry Association sent a letter to the White House urging them to change their stance.
The letter reads: ‘The proposed additional tariff on footwear, footwear components and footwear machinery would do untold damage to our industry, ultimately affecting consumers in a negative way and hamstringing what has traditionally been a hugely successful part of the American economy’. The letter goes on to make a case for the tariffs endangering the US jobs it posits to protect, saying ‘These tariff actions, if applied to the footwear industry, will make goods more expensive for consumers and create an environment that leads to job loss and domestic factory slowdowns’.
Image credit: Gerd Altmann.