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PBS News Hour - Segments

What tariffs and trade war threats mean for the U.S. footwear industry

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

Daily News, News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2025

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the United States, the vast majority of shoes sold are imported. That means tariffs are a real issue for the footwear industry. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Matt Priest, president and CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America trade group. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Transcript

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0:00.0

Well, let's talk now about the kind of impact that these tariffs, threats, and changes mean for business directly.

0:06.5

In the United States, the vast majority of shoes sold here are imported, which means tariffs are a real issue.

0:12.9

I spoke just a short time ago with Matt Priest. He's the president and CEO of the trade group,

0:17.8

footwear distributors and retailers of America. Matt, welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for being here.

0:22.5

Thank you, Omna. It's a pleasure to be here.

0:24.3

So things obviously are changing very quickly on this front. As we sit here and speak now,

0:28.7

we know President Trump has kept in place that 10% baseline tariff, ramped up tariffs on China,

0:34.2

and paused them for 90 days on most other countries. But it's worth pointing out the majority of shoes in the U.S. are imported.

0:41.1

When you look at where they come from, the vast majority are from China, also from Vietnam,

0:45.2

Indonesia, Cambodia, and fewer than from India.

0:48.3

What does all of this back and forth on the tariffs mean for the businesses you represent?

0:52.3

And who are we talking about here?

0:53.4

Yeah, we represent 97% of the

0:55.6

shoe industry here in the U.S. Omna. And so that is Nike Under Armour, A6, Dick Sporting Goods, Target, Walmart,

1:02.9

and then all the way down to family importers that bring in product every single day. And so

1:07.7

our goal right now is to try to drive as much certainty to the business

1:11.9

that we can, but it's a really difficult thing to do in this environment. With each passing day,

1:16.8

there's a tariff that's added. There's a tariff that's taken off. And so our members are scrambling

1:20.7

to understand what the real-life impact will be on costing for consumers here in the days and

1:25.3

weeks to come. Even with the rollback of these tariffs, does that mean the problems have gone away for these

1:29.5

businesses? Are they no longer worried?

1:31.1

No, they're definitely still worried. I mean, the rollback is a positive thing. We want to commend

...

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