Mexican shoe industry leader protests at illegal imports
Thousands more jobs will be shed by the Mexican footwear industry if nothing is done by the government to stop the rising tide of illegal imports from China, the head of the country’s Shoe Industry Federation, Ramon Hernandez Perez, warned last week.
Speaking to the Mexico City daily newspaper el Universal, Hernandez Perez said the industry had already been driven into recession by the illegal imports. These totalled two million pairs in the first six months of the year, accounting for exactly half of all domestic sales, Hernandez Perez said. As a result, 500 manufacturers had gone out of business with the loss of more than 10,000 jobs.
Hernandez Perez called upon the customs authorities to do more to counter the situation which, he said, was now completely out of control.
