Vice-president defends Ecuador’s policy on footwear tariffs
01/04/2015
Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, introduced new tariffs of up to 21% on imported footwear from January 15. The policy has drawn criticism from trading partners, including Colombia.
Mr Glas said in a recent radio interview that the sector is responsible for 100,000 jobs in Ecuador, directly and indirectly.
“We now produce more than 36 million pairs of shoes per year,” the vice-president said. “In the 1980s, the figure was 20 million, but after we joined the World Trade Organization, it fell to 8 million.”
He said the only way for the Ecuadorean footwear industry to keep making progress was to keep the tariffs in place.
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