United States: International brands ask Trump for exemption from import tariffs
The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA), along with more than 80 major U.S. footwear companies and brands, sent a letter last May to President Donald Trump urging him to exempt footwear from his administration’s reciprocal tariff plan.
The petition was signed by NIKE, ADIDAS, BROOKS, CALERES, COLUMBIA, CROCS, GENESCO, PUMA, SKECHERS, STEVE MADDEN, WOLVERINE, and UNDER ARMOUR, among others.
“We are particularly affected by tariff measures, as the U.S. government already imposes a significant tariff burden on our industry before adding new duties,” they stated. As an example, they cited children’s footwear, which faces “rates of 20% and 37.5% and higher before accounting for reciprocal tariffs.” The letter also noted that the new reciprocal rates “are stacked on top of already high existing footwear tariffs,” resulting in many U.S. footwear companies having to pay duties ranging from “over 150% to nearly 220%.”
The steep price increases prevent U.S. consumers from having access to affordable footwear, the letter stressed. More importantly, it emphasized that “these tariffs will not bring footwear manufacturing back to the United States." On the contrary, they will remove the "trade certainty" necessary to make the capital investments required to plan sourcing changes and invest in machinery and materials to produce footwear in the U.S.
It also mentioned that many footwear companies do not even know how they will pay for merchandise already shipped that is now arriving at U.S. ports, and that the inability to pay could put many American footwear companies at “imminent risk.”
Finally, they reiterated deep concern over the inevitable job losses in the U.S. footwear sector, the additional costs for consumers, and the reduction in spending, which would severely harm the industry and the entire U.S. economy.
Meanwhile, footwear industry executives have formed a forward-looking research think tank, the Footwear Innovation Foundation, to help the sector be more proactive in shaping the future of footwear in the United States.
RELATED ARTICLE:
- Footwear companies facing possible tariffs in the U.S.