A Number Of Initiatives In Mexico To Crack Down On Cheap Import And Supporting Footwear Industry

I. industry background

　　 Shoemaking industry Having a long history of over 400 years in Mexico, it is one of the most traditional labor-intensive industries and has been regarded as a strong strategic force for regional and national development because of its large number of employment. In recent years, the average annual output of 250 million pairs is mainly concentrated in Guanajuato, the state of Mexico, the state of Mexico City, and the Federal Republic of China. Among them, Guanajuato is the most important producing area, accounting for about 70% of the total output of the whole country. Over 120 thousand of the employed population is mainly distributed in leather, fur tanning and finishing, and leather, fur and substitute material manufacturing processes. In recent years, Mexico has become one of the five largest supplier of footwear products in the United States. In 2013, it exported 84 million pairs of shoes, worth 484 million US dollars, to the United States.

Although the footwear industry has been growing in recent years, its overall level is relatively low, and its development is still relatively backward. Domestic manufacturers, on the one hand, admit that their productivity and competitiveness need to be improved. On the one hand, they blame it on the impact of cheap foreign goods, thus seriously affecting the share of the ink and footwear sector in their consumer market.

As the footwear industry occupies an important position in the national economy of some parts of Mexico, especially in employment, its industry associations are quite active. They have the right to speak in front of the local and federal governments. The relevant measures can be seen as a result of a series of talks and agreements between the footwear sector and the state authorities in Mexico.

　 Two, latest policy

In August 29, 2014, the office of the president of the Mexico issued a decree in the federal official daily that measures must be taken to promote productivity, competitiveness and the underestimation of the underestimation of footwear sector. The act takes effect from the next day.

According to the act, many sectors of the national economy are affected by internal market shocks caused by harmful trade practices to varying degrees. The main reason is that the duty paid value of imported goods in customs documents is lower than their actual prices, and sometimes there is a serious undervalued value, or even lower than the price of raw materials used for making goods. The reason for this phenomenon is mainly through the third parties' false invoices, changing or forging commercial documents. The decree points out that it is imminent to establish a framework for preventing and combating undervalued behavior, because such behavior will not only reduce the tax base of general import tax, thereby affecting financial revenue, but also affect the development of national industry, resulting in an increase in unemployment rate, a decrease in investment level and a promotion of informal economic growth.

　　 Act First, it sets out its policy basis: in the 2013-2018 year innovation and development plan, it points out that the industrial strategy and policy that will promote the mature industrial production, especially the shoemaking industry, has a significant impact on regional development and employment, and effectively improve the sector productivity. The 2013-2018 year productivity democratization plan and the policy of the State Development Bank point out that we should reduce production costs, improve logistics efficiency and increase the professional knowledge, skills and competitiveness of human resources through supporting technology and innovation. In summary, productivity is of great significance to industry, and helps to promote enterprise spanformation, promote value chain integration, accelerate industrial upgrading and integrate into the international market.

The decree specifically mentioned that in December 24, 2008, the federal official daily issued a revision of the tariff schedule for general import and export goods, which stipulated a set of progressive tariff reduction schemes applicable to many sectors of the economy, including the footwear industry. Subsequently, Mohist ministry changed its contents in December 31, 2012 and December 26, 2013. According to the revised content, the last round of tax reduction should have been implemented since January 1, 2015. However, this act considers that it is necessary to relax the gradual reduction of footwear products in order to consolidate and enhance the effectiveness of the footwear sector. Accordingly, the decree issues the terms of the resolution as follows:

Article 1: this act aims to establish a framework to promote productivity in the footwear sector, consolidate and enhance the competitiveness of the footwear sector through innovative industrial policies, and demonstrate that the federal government can implement actions to prevent and combat the undervalued behavior of imported goods.

Second: the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of economic affairs will, within their respective functions, provide the necessary measures to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the footwear sector, especially through the following means:

1, identify measures to facilitate the competitive financial support of production sector projects.

2, support innovation, industrial spanformation and value chain integration, and improve public action.

3, to promote and support customer centered entrepreneurs and staff training, skills development, ability certification and other comprehensive plans;

4, support the formulation and implementation of methods, technologies and design processes to achieve product differentiation and create maximum added value;

5, support the product positioning and marketing strategy of the domestic brand in the target market.

Third: the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of economic affairs, within their respective functions, will implement permanent measures to prevent and combat low-priced customs declaration of imported goods. Measures may include but are not limited to the following means:

1, collect relevant information that they believe to prevent, detect and sanction low-priced customs declaration, identify and control objects.

2, professional risk analysis should be adopted in the operation of goods entering the country, including customs clearance through designated authorized customs.

3, coordinate with the qualified personnel accredited by specialized academic institutions, the chamber of Commerce and business associations and their associations, international institutions and other risk analysis organizations in other countries.

4, the establishment of non-tariff Import Supervision and restrictive measures, including, but not limited to, in line with the relevant provisions of the foreign trade law of the automatic license;

5, the "specific department" is specified in the list of importers of specific departments referred to in the fourth paragraph of the fifty-ninth paragraph of the Customs Law.

6, the regulatory mechanism should monitor the customs value of goods, and even cover the guarantee of financial interests, such as expected prices and early warning prices.

Fourth: after application, the Ministry of economic affairs can consult the industry chamber of Commerce regarding the feasibility of applying for unfair trade practices and safeguards investigation.

Fifth: the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of economic affairs may, within their respective functions and powers, promulgate the necessary general provisions to ensure that the act is properly and reasonably implemented.

Sixth: amend the fifth part of the spanitional provisions of the decree on Revision of general tariff rates for import and export goods issued by the federal official daily in December 24, 2008, as well as the relevant amendments published in December 31, 2012 and December 26, 2013. The updated expressions are as follows:

V. the seventh BIS of this act will come into force on January 1, 2015, and the Customs Tariff No. 64 will take effect from January 31, 2019. (seventh BIS refers exclusively to footwear)

Three, specific measures

After the promulgation of the decree, the Ministry of economic affairs and the Ministry of Finance issued a series of supporting measures to implement the relevant laws and regulations.

(1) measures adopted by the Ministry of economic affairs in promoting industrial development

The Ministry of economic affairs is responsible for designing and implementing a set of industrial policies that will help promote the innovation, growth and capability of the footwear industry. The federal government will work together with the industry to enhance industrial productivity and competitiveness within the framework of the policy. The policy mainly includes four main lines: first, to develop industrial capability; the two is to promote and implement the innovation process; the three is to promote the development of supply chain and distribution channel; and the four is to promote Mexico footwear products in foreign markets.

(two) the Ministry of finance is cracking down on illegal activities.

The Ministry of finance is responsible for preventing and combating the undervalued behavior of imported goods. Measures taken to prevent unfair competition can be divided into eight aspects, as follows:

1, suspend the import tax reduction process for finished products.

During the six years of the current president Pernia's term of office, from 2013 to 2018, the tariff reduction process will be suspended. The tariff of all imported footwear will remain at 25% to 30%, instead of 20% from January 1, 2015.

2, rebuild footwear import guarantee valuation mechanism

All importers who import footwear products below the estimated value must ensure that the difference between the declaration price and the valuation price is guaranteed. This will directly attack price underestimation.

3, limiting customs clearance

In September 1, 2014, the Ministry of Finance issued a resolution in the federal official daily to revise the general rules of foreign trade and its annexes 10 and 21 in 2014. The revision of annex 21 is: for the footwear products under the 57 eight customs tariff codes, special customs importation is required, that is, footwear products can only be imported by 9 of 33 customs offices in Mexico.

The 9 customs that the Mexico authorities provide for the import of footwear are: Lhasa L Zaro C, Manzanillo, Mexico (M e xico), Guadalajara (Guadalajara), Veracruz (Veracruz), Tijuana International Airport (Tijuana), Mexico City International Airport (Aeropuerto Aeropuerto, C), and Hidalgo (New Zealand).

The 57 customs tariff codes to be implemented are as follows:

6401.10.01, 6401.92.01, 6401.92.996401.99.01, 6401.99.02, 6401.99.99, 6402.19.01, 6402.19.02, 6402.19.03, 6402.19.99, 6402.20.016402.91.01, 6402.91.02, 6402.99.01.