World Footwear

Trade

AAFA President still has concerns with the trade war

Oct 16, 2019 United States
AAFA President still has concerns with the trade war
Rick Helfenbein, President and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association was interviewed by Bloomberg and he was not enthusiastic with the phase one trade deal
Rick Helfenbein, President and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), commented on the recent decision by Trump administration’s not to further increase tariffs by 5% and said he is not enthusiastic (READ ALL ABOUT THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT HERE)

Mr Helfenbein was interviewed during Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia, and the theme was the recent news that the US would not increase duties on 250 billion US dollars' worth of Chinese goods from 25% to 30% as previously announced.

According to the head of AAFA the 5% increase is less significant than the 15% tariff already imposed in September to "91% of all apparel and 53% of all footwear coming from China". “China is really, really, really important to our industry in America. So any tariff — and we already pay tariffs — is a hurt.”

Helfenbein told Bloomberg that earnings over the holidays will also be impacted by the current situation, and one cannot ignore that a separate tariff hike is set to be in place by the 15th of December, which could translate in a 15% rate to 160 billion US dollars'worth of Chinese imports.

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