Mexico and China sign new footwear agreement
28/03/2012
A tariff agreement between China and Mexico ended in December 2011. In the early part of 2012, Mexican footwear industry leaders said import levels from China surged. They said that in January 2012, Mexico imported almost 1.5 million pairs of shoes from China. The corresponding figure for January 2011 when the tariff was in place was 490,000, which means the January 2012 figure was more than 200% higher.
On learning of the figure, the president of the Guanajuato footwear industry association (CICEG), Armando Martín Dueñas, repeated a warning that if this trend continues, 200 companies in his part of Mexico could close before the end of the year, costing an estimated 35,000 jobs.
Now, Mexico’s economics minister, Bruno Ferrari, has announced a new agreement with China to restrict imports of footwear from China “at prices that could affect the local market”. Customs officers in both countries will monitor the price of footwear leaving China for the Mexican market. The Mexican authorities will be able to prevent the entry to their country of shoes that they deem unfairly cheap.
The new agreement will come into force on May 1 and will last until December 31, 2014.
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