Nike, Adidas and different footwear giants ask Trump for tariff exemption

America’s largest shoe manufacturers are asking President Donald Trump for a tariff reprieve.

The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America commerce group despatched a letter to the White Home this week asking for an exemption to Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs,” which the affiliation mentioned pose an “existential risk” to the footwear trade. The letter is signed by 76 footwear manufacturers, together with Nike, Adidas, Skechers and Underneath Armour.

“Many firms making reasonably priced footwear for hardworking decrease and middle-income households can not take up tariff charges this excessive, nor can they cross alongside these prices. With out fast aid from the reciprocal tariffs they’ll merely shutter,” reads the letter, which is dated April 29.

“Many orders have been positioned on maintain, and footwear stock for U.S. shoppers might quickly run low,” the commerce group mentioned.

Trump’s wide-sweeping tariffs, introduced on April 2, included levies on a number of nations which are necessary sources for footwear suppliers, together with China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Whereas the preliminary tariff charges of over 45% for Vietnam and Cambodia have been lowered to 10% for a 90-day interval, the Trump administration has solely ratcheted up duties on Chinese language imports, which are actually topic to an efficient tariff fee of 145%.

Trump’s larger tariffs on dozens of commerce companions are set to renew in early July.

Adidas beforehand warned this week that tariffs would result in larger costs for American shoppers. In late March, earlier than the particular reciprocal tariff charges have been introduced, Nike’s finance chief mentioned international levies and financial uncertainty would end in decrease current-quarter gross sales.

The footwear affiliation’s letter mentioned the trade had already been dealing with vital duties on merchandise like kids’s sneakers earlier than Trump introduced his broad tariffs. In complete, U.S. footwear firms will face tariffs starting from 150% to about 220%, the commerce group mentioned.

“That is an emergency that requires fast motion and a spotlight. The American footwear trade doesn’t have months to regulate enterprise fashions and provide chains whereas absorbing this unprecedented and unexpected tariff regime,” the affiliation wrote.

The group additional warned that the tariffs will not end in bringing manufacturing again to the U.S., as Trump has promised, as a result of they erase the knowledge that companies require to be able to put money into sourcing modifications.

The White Home did not instantly reply to a CNBC request for remark.