Footwear importers are mounting an all-out effort to convince Congress and the Obama administration that disproportionately large duties on their products are punishing both retailers and American consumers.
Footwear last year racked up import duties of $2.4 billion, and over the past 10 years the industry paid duties totaling $34 billion…
In this era of free trade agreements, import duties are normally associated with legacy attempts to protect domestic manufacturers. Duties on footwear are therefore an anomaly because only 1 percent of the footwear purchased in the U.S. is actually manufactured here.
Furthermore, import duties on footwear are higher than on some products that are manufactured or grown in the U.S. The average duty on footwear imports is about 10 percent, compared to automobiles at 2.5 percent and tobacco at 2.4 percent. The duty on imported cell phones is zero…
In total, footwear accounts for about 1 percent of U.S. imports, but it generates 8 percent of the total import duties collected by the government…
This has been excerpted from 23 October 2013 article of the Journal of Commerce, and is available in its entirety at: http://www.joc.com/regulation-policy/trade-policy/united-states-trade-policy/us-footwear-importers-push-tariff-relief_20131023.html (subscription may be required.)