Nike, Adidas and 171 other footwear companies recently wrote a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to reconsider his tariffs on shoes made in China, saying the policy would be ‘catastrophic for our consumers, our companies and the American economy as a whole’. It was also sent to treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross. “On behalf of our hundreds of millions of footwear consumers and hundreds of thousands of employees, we ask that you immediately stop this action to increase their tax burden,” US media reported quoting the letter. “Your proposal to add tariffs on all imports from China is asking the American consumer to foot the bill. It is time to bring this trade war to an end,” the letter said. “As an industry that faces a $3 billion duty bill every year, we can assure you that any increase in the cost of importing shoes has a direct impact on the American footwear consumer,” according to the letter. The shoe industry’s trade association, the Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America, estimates that the tariffs would cost US customers an additional $7 billion per year. The companies claimed those costs would disproportionately affect working class individuals. Nike made 26 per cent of its apparel and 26 per cent of its footwear in China in fiscal 2018. Skechers U.S.A. Inc. makes around 65 per cent of its goods in China, but not all of those products are imported to the United States. Under Armour Inc., which also signed the letter, currently gets about 18 per cent of its products from China, down from 46 per cent in 2013. The company’s goal is to lower that number to just 7 per cent by 2023.
