October 23rd, 2008 - As talks begin about another economic stimulus package, legislators agree that effort needs to be made to provide relief to the middle class and encourage consumer confidence. As part of that initiative, a bipartisan group in Congress are seeking to repeal most of the shoe tariff, offering billions of dollars of relief to working families. 

Their efforts would eliminate this depression-era tax on shoes that drives up prices. Enacted in the 1930s to protect U.S. footwear manufacturers, the shoe tariff, or tax, on imported shoes has outlived its usefulness as 99% of our shoes are made outside of the United States. The tariff serves as a de facto hidden tax on consumers, driving up the import cost for some shoes by as much as 67%. 

Because of the way in which the tax was originally designed, lower-priced, or budget footwear is taxed at a much higher rate than higher-priced, expensive footwear.  The tax therefore hits lower- and middle-income working families hardest. On a typical $15 pair of children’s shoes, as much as $4.50 of the price could be the direct result of the tariff.   

The Affordable Footwear Act, which seeks to repeal most of the shoe tariff is non-controversial and enjoys bipartisan support in Congress.  157 Members of the House of Representatives and 14 U.S. Senators support the bill. Conservative and liberal think tanks (The Heritage Foundation and the Progressive Policy Institute, respectively) issued a joint report in which they said:  “[repealing the shoe tax] would have an immediate and meaningful impact on household budgets.”