A report by the Commerce Department’s Office of Textiles & Apparel (OTEXA) shows, US’ footwear imports from China declined 0.9 per cent in 2018. The value of imports reached $13.89 billion from 2017. The overall footwear imports by the US increased 9.1 per cent to $26.22 billion last year. China’s market share fell to 53 per cent in 2018 from 56 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, according to the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, imports from Vietnam increased 13.8 per cent to reach $6.16 billion last year to hold a 23.5 per cent market share. The next two most significant suppliers included Indonesia and Italy. Indonesia’s footwear shipments to the US increased 4.7 per cent to $1.55 billion while that of Italy increased 13.2 percent to $1.54 billion.

Among other prominent footwear exporters in 2018 included Cambodia, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Bangladesh. Others losing market share include India, The Dominican Republic, Brazil and Thailand.