Word: shoeing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...shoe industry is not the victim of unfair trade practices but of labor costs. Making shoes is a labor-intensive business, and the simple fact is that foreign workers are willing to work for less. In the U.S., the typical shoemaker earns $6.71 an hour. In Brazil, the average hourly rate is 85 cents, in Taiwan, 91 cents...
According to the ITC, prices of imported footwear could rise by some 15% in the U.S. in the first year alone. To employ 22,000 new shoeworkers at an average salary of $14,000 would cost the U.S. $26,300 per job. Shoe quotas would hurt developing countries, which are struggling to earn foreign exchange to service their U.S. debts. Washington would be in the awkward position of demanding that Brazil meet its debt obligations while depriving it of the means...
...benefit to the shoe industry might amount to little more than a stay of execution. After five years of protection, there is no reason to believe that the American shoemakers would be any more able to fend off foreign competition. Says U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter: "That was the major strike that the footwear industry had against it. If the industry could have demonstrated that it was likely to be price competitive in the future, we may have had a different position...
...refusing to bail out U.S. shoemakers, Reagan further stirred protectionist passions in Congress. The shoe industry has some powerful allies, including Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Danforth of Missouri (home of Buster Brown shoes). Of the four-member New Hampshire delegation, only one, Senator Gordon Humphrey, supported the President. "I don't represent shoeworkers only," declared Humphrey. "I represent consumers." Humphrey is not running for re-election next year...
Still, it is likely that Reagan correctly gauged the political odds on shoes. Though determined, the defenders of the shoe industry are not numerous enough to carry Congress. That is, unless they can make common cause with Congressmen fronting for some other--and more powerful--endangered industry, such as steel, textiles or autos...