·        The Affordable Footwear Act seeks to remove regressive and punitive import duties, commonly called the "shoe tax," on a range of shoe types popular with today's consumers, particularly lower- to moderately-priced footwear and children's shoes.

·        Together, the duties on footwear covered by the Affordable Footwear Act account for $800 million, or about 40% of the total shoe tax collected annually. All in all, the shoe tax would be removed from about 60% of all shoes sold in America.

·        If enacted, the Affordable Footwear Act would function as a tax cut for American footwear consumers by saving them billions of dollars annually, providing economic relief to lower- and middle-income families at a time when they need it the most.

·        This Affordable Footwear Act is not controversial - imports account for 99% of all shoes sold in America, and the few remaining domestic footwear producers do not oppose the legislation.

·        The shoe tax is costly; as high as 67.5 percent. U.S. footwear companies paid $1.9 billion in duties to the U.S. government in 2007, more than the duties paid on imports of virtually any other single type of product.

·        The U.S. tariff system, with respect to footwear, is regressive in that it charges higher rates of duty for lower-valued merchandise. As such, footwear duties act as a hidden, regressive tax on low- and middle-income American households, including working families with children, who spend a larger share of their disposable income on basic necessities, like shoes.  

·        Because duties are subject to the same distribution mark-ups as any cost, the $1.9 billion in import duties translates into a $4-5 billion tax each year on hardworking American families.

·        The depression-era shoe tax originated in the 1930 to protect a manufacturing sector that no longer exists today.

·        Over the last 20 years, U.S. footwear production has practically disappeared. The few remaining U.S. footwear manufacturers successfully focus on niche items differentiated by quality, brand, specialized purpose, or other non-price elements.

·        The Affordable Footwear Act does not apply to the remaining footwear types still manufactured domestically, thus U.S. manufacturers do not oppose it. The shoe types addressed by the Affordable Footwear Act are no longer produced in America, yet are still subject to the regressive, expensive shoe tax.

·        The hard-nosed competition that exists in the U.S. footwear market - recognized by the U.S. International Trade Commission - ensures that a substantial portion of the duty-savings will be passed on to American consumers. In fact, due to this competition, retail prices for footwear have fallen over 4 percent since 1998 while overall retail prices grew over 25 percent during the same period.

·        The Affordable Footwear Act is permanent tax relief for lower- and middle-income American families in the form of lower prices on footwear - something every man, woman and child must purchase, and at a time when they need it most.

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