New shoes for Lula
19/01/2009
The Italian National Footwear Manufacturers (ANCI) found an unusual way to press home a point about import taxes when it visited the Couromoda exhibition in Brazil in mid-January.
ANCI president, Vito Artioli, took the opportunity of a meeting with Brazil’s president, Inácio Lula Da Silva, to ask for a reduction of the 35% import tax that Italian footwear brands have to endure to bring their products into his country, making Italian shoes too expensive for most consumers there.
To make it clear to President Lula what Brazilians are missing out on, he handed over a gift of a pair of handmade Italian shoes in crocodile leather.
Mr Artioli said afterwards: “Brazil represents the next challenge for exports and the future for distribution of luxury Italian shoe companies. But first of all, the industry will have to lobby hard to reduce import duties in order to create a context that makes it possible for Italian footwear to enter the Brazilian market without difficulty. In this sense, the meeting with the president of Brazil was very positive.”
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