Mexican industry shaking in its boots – Leon shoemakers fear the lowering of tariffs will trigger a deluge of Chinese imports. – Shoemaking in Guanajuato state employs 70,000

Shoes are to this industrial city what cars are to Detroit. And like the Motor City, Mexico’s footwear capital is feeling the heat of foreign competition.

The threat might not be apparent from the billboards hawking Mexican-made sneakers, boots and dress shoes that line the highway leading into town. Or from the malls devoted entirely to shoe stores. A statue of a cobbler graces a major thoroughfare. A footwear museum is under construction. More than 70,000 people in Leon and the surrounding state of Guanajuato labor for one of the region’s shoe manufacturers or suppliers.

“Practically my whole neighborhood” works in the industry, said Lorena Hernandez Alcala, who sells cowboy boots in the Galeria del Zapato, or Gallery of Shoes, which boasts more than 50 footwear retailers. “We’d be in trouble” if anything happened to the sector.”*

*From: www.latimes.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

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