US duties? Assocalzaturifici: “The government must strongly oppose them”

Italy’s footwear segment asks its Government to “quickly and decisively” oppose the US threat of imposing an additional 25% duty on the value of shoes, apparel and sunglasses coming from Italy. The next few days will be decisive. As shows by the roadmap written by USTR, (United States Trade Representative), starting on March 26^th, the entity has conducted a public research on the matter of the web tax and studied the potential sanctions for the countries deemed at fault. The time to conduct such analysis expired on April 30^th, 2021. During the first week of May the first few hearings will be held: one for the overall group, and one for each commercial partner.

Quickly and decisively

“After having heard of the threat made by the United States against products of Italian origin – commented Siro Badon, president of Assocalzaturifici (association affiliated with Confindustria Moda) -, we ask the Government to dedicate its efforts so that the opposition to the proposal will be taken quickly and decisively. It’s unacceptable that the same manufacturing segments are always the ones left to pay for the dominant positions taken by multinationals of the digital economy”. These same segments, point out Mr. Badon, “represent the segment of the Made-in-Italy economy that is well known and liked on international markets”. “The United States are a strategic area for our exports. The first market, together with China, that is recovering after the pandemic. We really do not need this further complication when dealing with a market that is the top export destination, out of the EU, in terms of value”.

FDRA’s opinion

World Footwear reported the view of Matt Priest, President and CEO of FDRA, Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America. Mr. Priest trusts that this is just a “negotiation tool”, stating that he is not in favor of these actions. “We know these are just taxes, which will be passed on to the American consumers”. Moreover, Mr. Priest states that this tension is already having an impact, as it’s generating “a dropping volume of orders”. The point is: no games, please.

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