A new back-to-school report on children’s footwear, conducted by the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA), shows that duties have increased 191 percent over the past 10 years.
The FDRA report shines light on the growing burden on working class families to purchase footwear during the back-to-school season. “Footwear has one of the highest duty rates on any imported good, averaging 11 percent and reaching upwards of 67.5 percent on certain footwear,” said a representative for the FDRA.
The report from the U.S. trade association outlined:
- Duties on children’s footwear in 2015 topped the $300 million mark for the first time.
- Duties on children’s footwear have increased 191 percent since 2005.
- TPP will cut children’s footwear duties by $125 million in year one.
- TPP will save $1.5 billion on children’s footwear duties in just over a decade.
“Today, as back-to-school footwear sales continue, FDRA releases a special report showing a growing burden on every working class family,” said FDRA President Matt Priest. “Worse, the magnification effect – costs added on top of the duty including transport, marketing, warehouse and retail wages – means Americans are currently paying close to a billion dollars more than they need to for their kids’ shoes…to protect zero domestic manufacturing jobs as we haven’t mass produced kids’ shoes in America in over 30 years.”
Priest added, “We do report a silver lining – as children footwear imports from Vietnam continue to grow, we estimate American families could save $4 billion dollars at retail on kids’ shoes over the full 12-year implementation process IF TPP passes Congress. Making it harder and harder for us to understand the positions of the two presidential candidates on TPP when it would save families real money at a time they need it most, and on a product they have to buy on average of seven times a year per child due to growth spurts and various school and recreational activities.”
