European retailers and importers are uniting to face down the threat of new EU taxes being imposed on childrens 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 childrens 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 childrens 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 childs 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 dont 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.
In April this year a 19.4 per cent duty was imposed on leather shoes imported into the EU from China and Vietnam for an initial period of six months.
European Member States will decide in July on the duty levels to be applied until 2011 and whether they will be extended to childrens shoes. Members including Italy, Portugal, Spain and Poland want to protect domestic shoe producers from foreign competition.
Commerce operates on low net margins, generally in the region of 5%. Import duties wipe out margins either forcing cuts in variable costs (labour) or increases in retail prices. There is no evidence that duties increase sales for European manufacturers.
In 2004/2005 1,009,610,000 (just over a billion pounds) was spent on childrens footwear in the UK.
An average family will buy 10 15 pairs of childrens shoes over a five year period.
An average child aged between 0 and 11 is bought 5.42 pairs of new footwear a year costing a total of 99.28
Plastic bags, furniture, home-wares, bathroom accessories and jeans are also future targets for EU import duties.
Members of the Childrens Shoe Coalition include: Retail Ireland, Danish Commerce & Services, Platform, Detailhandel Nederland, Independent Footwear Retailers Association (UK), FEDIS (Belgium), FCJT (France), EuroCommerce, British Retail Consortium
IFRA aims are to raise the standards of professionalism within the retail footwear industry and ensure the public receive a good deal and we undertake to resolve - as far as is possible -any problems that may arise between our member retailer and their customer.
