Hundreds of U.S. companies, including leading U.S. footwear brands, sent a letter to the Trump Administration today opposing new tariffs on $200 billion in consumer goods. Raising concerns that the proposed tariffs would disproportionately hurt U.S. consumers, workers and companies, more than 50 FDRA member companies signed the letter, including Ariat, Allen Edmonds, NIKE, DSW, Clarks, Fila and Wolverine Worldwide.
“Even though footwear is not on the third list proposed by the Trump Administration, many other consumer goods and production machinery is at risk, driving up prices for all American consumers,” states Matt Priest, president and CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA). “Higher costs for our consumers hurts our ability to sell more shoes and that impacts jobs in our industry. As footwear companies made clear in the letter today, new hidden taxes that touch every single American consumer is simply the wrong approach.”
The letter (link below) specifically outlines key challenges of supply chain agility and costs: “We cannot simply shift our supply chains outside of China without massive disruption and cost increases due to materials availability, quality, compliance and capacity in other countries,” adds Priest. “Moreover, because China accounts for such a large percentage of imports for consumption or further manufacturing, any additional tariffs would likely translate into added costs and price increases in the United States.
Millions of U.S. jobs in our industry’s global value chains—including those in research and design, supply chain, manufacturing, compliance, logistics and retail—would be put at risk if a new 10 percent or 25 percent tax were imposed, due to fewer sales, less investment and cost increases throughout U.S. supply chains.”
Multi-Company Section 301 Tariff Letter 090618 Final
