The Brazilian footwear industry denounced the loss of more than 23,000 jobs in December 2010 due to imports of Chinese footwear. These came into the country with fraudulent certificates of origin making a mockery of measures established recently by the government to protect the footwear industry from production realized under conditions of dumping (selling below the real cost of production).
According to the indicator denominated the Development of Employment in the Footwear Industry for December, the industry consisted of 347,176 workers which is a reduction of 6.2% compared to November where a total of 370,272 jobs were accounted for.
Milton Cardoso, President of the Brazilian Footwear Association (Abical ados), stated that 5,000 jobs were also lost between October and November. Since July we have been sending out alerts regarding the effects of triangulation of imports and the resulting loss of jobs and now we have confirmation of this, he explained.
This data reinforces Abical ados arguments in the petition presented to the Ministry of Development about the practice of triangulation of footwear imports (the entry of products from a country but with documents stating that these products originate in another). This petition was presented on January 18th and in it an extension of the anti-dumping tariff of US$13.85/pair is requested which currently is applied to shoes imported from China as well as to products from Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia and footwear parts from China for assembly in Brazil.
2010 saw an increase of 23% in footwear imports in Brazil. This percentage indicates that besides an increase in purchases from countries which do not manufacture footwear, the importer is also receiving parts such as uppers and soles. These materials can be assembled in a simple manufacturing operation by gluing them together when they arrive in Brazil. This is yet another way of avoiding the anti-dump ng tariff currently applied to Chinese footwear.
It is also worth noting that such unscrupulous imports would not be possible without the connivance of local Brazilian importers wanting to make a mockery of the regulations designed to protect jobs and factories in their own country.
CITATION http://www.chinaleather.org/eng/show.php?itemid=5918
