According to the FDRA: “99% of all footwear sold in America is imported - meaning almost every footwear job in America is tied to trade. Congress is about to introduce Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation, which is a tool that can help advance major trade agreements that would strengthen and create thousands of new footwear jobs across America - including port, trucking, warehouse, retail and design jobs”.

The same source argues that the footwear industry is the sector paying higher duties in the US, above almost any consumer product, hitting duty rates of 20%, 48% and upwards of 67.5%. The FDRA believes such high taxes negatively impact the industry’s ability to grow, and ultimetly reflect on the prices consumers have to pay for footwear.

“We need TPA to help pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which would save the industry and consumers almost half a billion dollars in import taxes each year - money that can be reinvested back into footwear jobs, product development, and savings for consumers”, can be read on the website of the organisation, which incentivates their members to write the Congress requesting further attention to the matter.

Back in February, the FDRA announced that in 2014, the footwear industry paid 2 671 841 761 US dollars in footwear tariffs to the US government, which represents a 6.6% increase over 2013.

But it is not the FDRA who is encouraging their members to take action; the AAFA is also very active on the matter.  "Trade agreements provide countless benefits to the US economy through better jobs, higher wages, and consumer choices. But one benefit that should be especially important for the political left is the power of international trade flows to reduce income inequality” can be read on the AAFA blog.