Ysmael Lopez Garcia, president of the Guanajuato Chamber of the Footwear Industry, has requested that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) establish regulations for “ethical trade in commercial practices”.

"On behalf of Latin American footwear industries that produce 1,500 million pairs annually – from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay – who have asked me to be their voice, we ask the WTO to exercise strong action among member countries to comply with established agreements and for the economies of each country to behave as true market economies.

"Given this dynamic of globalisation in which we are living, is essential to strengthen business ethics in international trade, to prevent practices that harm local economies, and thus boost the integration of countries practising free, and fair, trade.”

He said footwear companies want to know that competition between manufacturers from different countries takes place in a framework of legality: "That is our demand, our duty and our right.”

He called on participants at the World Footwear Congress, held recently in Mexico, to raise awareness of the “serious social costs” of “concentrating world footwear production in a few hands”.