Hike in kids' shoe prices threaten European retailers
18 May '06
3 min read
European retailers and importers are uniting to face down the threat of new EU taxes being imposed on children's shoes. A coalition including shoe retailers, The British Retail Consortium, Independent Footwear Retailers Association (IFRA) and members from Ireland, France, Denmark and the Netherlands is being launched today (Thursday).
It will battle to stop 20 per cent import duties, already imposed on adult shoes, being extended to children's shoes. In April the Commission added a fifth to the cost of leather shoes imported from China and Vietnam.
In July it will decide whether to extend that burden for a further five years and whether to include children's shoes. With every child in the UK under 11 needing shoes costing an average of £99 per year, the tax could amount to £20 per child per year, over £200 extra during one child's first 11 years.
Kevin Hawkins, Director General of the British Retail Consortium, said: "There is no evidence that duties will create or preserve a single job in European shoe production. Manufacturers here don't make the low cost shoes that the Far East specializes in."
"All duties will do is wipe out any profit margin made on leather shoe sales, forcing retailers to either raise prices or cut costs by axing jobs.”
"Retailers and consumers are the clear losers each time duties are imposed with low income families hardest hit. Imposing a substantial new tax on them will do nothing to boost the imageof the EU to its, already sceptical, citizens. Governments who support free trade must face down this threat."
Members of the coalition are spelling out the implications of the measures to governments and consumer groups across the EU. There are real concerns that the sector will bear the brunt of a policy that favours uncompetitive European producers at the expense of poorer families.
marketing@alchempro.com
