APPAREL

Argentina: Combating contraband footwear

by FNA posted on 02 Sep 2010

RICHARD SMITH

Back on July 28th FNA reported that Brazil was facing an invasion of "footwear in disguise" from Asia – specifically from Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Now neighboring Argentina has discovered that footwear imports from Malaysia have suddenly “appeared” after placing punitive import duties on Chinese manufactured footwear on March 22nd this year.

The Minister of Industry suspects that footwear imports from Malaysia are due to the certificate of origin being falsified to disguise footwear made in China as if had been manufactured in Malaysia. In this way unscrupulous importers and distributors attempt to avoid the US$13.38 duty imposed on each pair of shoes imported from China.

According to the president of the Argentine Footwear Chamber (CIC) Alberto Sellaro, footwear imports from China have declined significantly since March with the imposition of the punitive duty.

Alberto Sellaro President of Argentine CIC

Measures taken since 2009 to combat the growing imports or “dumping” of Chinese footwear into the Argentina market have been very successful. Imports fell from 6.3 million pairs in 2009 to just 1.4 million in the first six months of 2010, which is equivalent to an annualized decrease of some 69%.

Sellaro complained that there were still importers trying to get round the new regulations and the CIC had noticed large consignments from Malaysia which not even figured in the shoe import statistics in 2008.

The immediate action taken by the Ministry of Industry was to impose the US$13.38 per pair duty on all footwear entering the country from Malaysia.

Argentina is struggling to protect its traditional shoe manufacturing industry and the jobs it provides. This effort started back in 2003 and the fruits of this demanding labor are gradually manifesting themselves as imports decline and internal manufacturing rises.