Reagan Refuses to Impose Quotas on Imported Shoes

President Reagan today refused to impose quotas or raise riffs to protect America’s beleaguered shoe industry against low-priced imports flooding the market.

Instead, Reagan said he will take steps to put pressure on foreign governments to open their markets to more U.S. goods. To accomplish that, Reagan said he will invoke a section of trade law allowing the government itself to file unfair trade complaints against offenders in specific instances.

The U.S. tariff on imported shoes is now 8.8%.

Reagan said in a statement that, “while we support the principle of free trade, we must continue to insist of our trading partners that free trade also be fair trade. . . .”

Protectionism Flawed

“Today we increasingly find ourselves confronted with demands for protectionist measures against foreign competition, but protectionism is both ineffective and extremely expensive,” the President said.

“In fact, protectionism often does more harm than good to those it is designed to help. It is a crippling ‘cure,’ far more dangerous than any economic illness.”

The President’s action was immediately attacked by representatives of shoe-producing states.

Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.) said Reagan’s action was “grossly insensitive to the needs of the 200,000 shoe workers throughout the country.”

“By worshiping blindly at the altar of ‘free trade’ and refusing to impose quotas on the cheap foreign shoes which are flooding our market, the President is effectively signing the death warrant of the U.S. footwear industry,” Cohen said in a statement.

Limits Sought

Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) said he intended to push for a rewriting of the Trade Act to limit the President’s ability to reject a recommendation for action from the U.S. International Trade Commission, which had proposed a sliding scale of quotas.

George Langstaff, president of Footwear Industries of America, said the action announced by Reagan will do little to protect U.S. producers from imports, which last year captured 71% of the U.S. market.

The President, however, is a longtime disciple of free trade.

Congressional critics predicted that refusal to increase the shoe tariff would lend impetus to more than 300 pieces of protectionist legislation awaiting action on Capitol Hill.