Mexican footwear producers delighted as president takes tough stance on imports
01/09/2014
On August 28, Mr Peña Nieto gave the go-ahead to proposals to suspend tariff-free access for imported shoes, re-establish a guaranteed import price of shoes from overseas, reduce the number of entry points through which imported shoes can come into Mexico and establish an approved list of footwear importers.
Most of the measures will come into force on October 1.
These new policies mean footwear manufacturers overseas will have to pay a tariff of at least 25% to customs to bring their products into Mexico. The guaranteed price measure means importers will have to declare a price for imported shoes that is in keeping with the customs authorities’ estimated value, or make up the difference.
Following the president’s approval of the measures, a high-ranking finance ministry official, Luis Videgaray, travelled to León, Guanajuato, to address representatives of the footwear industry at the Sapica exhibition. When he announced the measures, industry members interrupted his speech with applause. He later said: “This will give us much more accurate tools for tackling something that has been a cancer for our footwear industry: shoes coming into Mexico at falsely low prices.”
Mr Videgaray added: “We believe that the Mexican footwear industry can compete and win. It can prosper, but for that to happen, there has to be a clear public policy and we have to put a minimum number of measures in place.”
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