Import fee hike could raise prices, it warns
The newly-formed Children's Shoe Coalition is calling on the European Commission to abandon plans to extend import duties on footwear, claiming they would hit retailers and consumers.

EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson is in China this week to discuss plans to impose 20 per cent import duty, which is already on leather shoes imported from China and Vietnam, for a further five years and whether to extend the duty to children's shoes.

The Children's Shoe Coalition, comprised of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), Independent Footwear Retailers Association and members from Ireland, France, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands, said that proposed increases in Far East shipping tariffs made it vital that no new import taxes were imposed.

With a freight tariff hike likely to add 30 per cent to the cost of transporting shoes from the Far East, such a move would double the danger of price rises for UK consumers, it said.

BRC director general Kevin Hawkins added: 'Rising oil prices are adding to production costs in Asia and forcing up transport bills. At home, retailers are coping with rents, rates, wages and energy bills all rising well above inflation.'

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