US: most expensive children’s shoes for 70 years
The chief executive of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA), Matt Priest, has sent a formal letter to US president, Joe Biden, to complain about a steep rise in the cost of children’s shoes.
Mr Priest’s letter was in response to a suggestion from the White House chief of staff, Ronald Klain, in mid-October, claiming that it was mostly higher-income people who were feeling the effects of inflation and supply chain constraints.
On Twitter on October 13, Ronald Klain appeared to agree with a message to this effect that a Harvard academic, Professor Jason Furman, had posted.
In his letter, Matt Priest told the president: “This idea is totally wrong. Poor and working-class families are paying skyrocketing cost increases on kids’ shoes across the country.”
He went on to say that the cost of children’s shoes, relative to the other things families need to buy, was the highest it has been for 70 years, insisting that government import taxes were “the real headline”.
He pointed out that tariffs on children’s shoes in the US often start at 20% but can reach nearly 70%. “The highest tariff rates are generally placed on lower-value footwear,” Mr Priest added, “creating a regressive hidden tax for working-class families.”
The FDRA chief executive called on President Biden to eliminate tariffs on children’s shoes. “While we know you cannot directly reduce our supply chain costs,” he told the president, “you can directly help reduce disproportionate retail price-spikes with a stroke of your pen.”
