Outdoor Industry Association said support is building for the Affordable Footwear Act in Congress despite press reports indicating it is opposed by the Obama Administration.


In a letter to members, OIA’s Director of Trade Policy Alex Boian said the legislation is actually gaining traction right now in Congress. 

 

Boian said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Sen. Shaheen (D-NH), Sen./Assistant Majority Leader Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Murray (D-WA) Sen./Vice Chair of Dem Conference Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Brownback (R-KS), Sen. Ensign (R-NV), Sen. Gregg (R-NH), Sen. Bond (R-MO), Sen. Roberts (R-KS), Sen. DeMint (R-SC) and other senators offered the AFA as an amendment to a jobs bill passed by the Senate last week.

 

“Although it was ultimately not included for technical and procedural reasons, there will be new opportunities in the coming weeks to pass the AFA,” Boain wrote in his missive.

 

Boian said press reports of U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk’s remarks ont he legistation at a meeting of the American Apparel and Footwear Association misconstrued his remarks and the position of the Obama Adminstration on the bill. In fact, the administration does not oppose the bill.

 

“Ambassador Kirk did acknowledge in his speech that the administration believes that one country, China, would be the primary beneficiary of the tariff elimination and that it is the administrationâ€s position that tariff elimination should be done through multilateral trade talks, specifically in the Doha Round,” wrote Boian, “but he also said that one cannot argue with the logic of the bill.

 

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month, Ambassador Kirk said that while the administration was not in a position to support the legislation, they could find no challenges to it and passing the AFA was “�a matter of congressional prerogative and not whether we (the administration) support it or not,”  Boian wrote. “He went on to acknowledge that the AFA is targeted at a product no longer made in the United States and agreed that passing the legislation would help American consumers.”

 

Boian then beseeched OIA members to help push the legislation across the finish line by contacting their senators, especially those in Washington State, New Hampshire, Colorado, Utah and California. 

 
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