Mexican footwear body criticises tariff reduction
06/02/2019
On January 31, the maximum tariff that can be applied on footwear entering Mexico was reduced to 20%. This applies to products coming from countries with which Mexico does not have alternative trade agreements. Crucially, this includes China.
Following the decisión, Luis Gerardo González, President of the Guanajuato Footwear Industry Association (CICEG), said many companies already have low profit margins and that the lower tariff favours larger companies, many of which import a large proportion of their products. He added that it would make shoes made in Mexico less attractive, further increasing imports.
For his part, CICEG’s executive president Alejandro Gómez Tamez, who earlier in January met with Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to appeal for the drop in tariffs to be cancelled, predicted footwear imports could increase by as much as 35% in 2019.
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