Word: shoes
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...shoe industry seems...
...shoe industry is doomed," says Seymour Fabric, president of the Southern California Shoe Manufacturers Association. "It's heartbreaking." In Maine, eight shoe factories have closed in the past 18 months, with a loss of about 7,600 jobs. In neighboring New Hampshire, shoemakers employed almost 11,000 workers a decade ago; this year fewer than 7,000 are at work...
Under a provision of the trade laws that allows industries facing extinction to apply for relief from foreign competition, the U.S. International Trade Commission recommended last June that the Administration cut the foreigners' share of the U.S. shoe market from 71% to 68%. President Reagan's refusal to do so was backed with coolly blunt reasoning: "To save a few temporary jobs, we would be throwing many other Americans out of work, costing consumers billions of dollars, further weakening the shoe industry and seriously damaging relations with our trading partners...
...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...