New Balance breaks silence, voices opposition to trade deal
Photo Courtesy / Sandy Dover, Flickr
New Balance, a Massachusetts footwear company with 900 employees working at three factories in Maine, has renewed its opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal eliminating footwear tariffs imposed on Vietnam and is accusing the Obama administration of breaking a promise to buy American-made footwear for the U.S. military.
New Balance, a Massachusetts footwear company with 900 employees working at three factories in Maine, has renewed its opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal eliminating footwear tariffs imposed on Vietnam and is accusing the Obama administration of breaking a promise to buy American-made footwear for the U.S. military.
Matt LeBretton, vice president of public affairs for the Boston-based company, told Mainebiz in a phone interview that New Balance decided to break its months-long silence over the sweeping trade agreement involving 12 Pacific Rim nations after the Pentagon reneged on a promise to give the company a shot at a contract to provide athletic shoes to American military personnel.
LeBretton said the company had kept silent about its serious misgivings about the TPP — which he says includes the “most aggressive phase-out of footwear tariffs” the company has ever seen in a free trade agreement, making Vietnam imports cheaper and putting New Balance’s American jobs at risk — because it was told the Pentagon was ready to implement a 2014 rule requiring U.S. military personnel to buy American-made athletic shoes. That rule essentially added footwear to the 1940s-era Berry Amendment requiring every piece of military gear worn by American recruits to be made in the United States.
“We decided that if we’re going to be silent about a deal we didn’t think was good to begin with, it was to give the 900 people we have working for us in Norridgewock, Skowhegan and Norway a chance to make those shoes,” LeBretton said. The Boston Globe said a major military contract could translate to up to 200,000 shoe orders a year for New Balance — which, unlike Nike, a strong TPP supporter, still maintains a strong domestic manufacturing presence, employing 1,400 people at its five New England factories, including Brighton and Lawrence, Mass.
But LeBretton said it became increasingly obvious to company officials that the Pentagon was stalling its implementation of the 2014 footwear rule. Company officials decided, he said, there was no point in remaining silent any longer about either the trade deal or what the company considers a reneged promise by the Obama administration in exchange for its silence when the TPP was coming up for “fast track authority” votes in Congress last spring.
“DoD has consistently moved the goal post,” New Balance CEO Rob DeMartini told the Boston Globe in a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the company’s site in Brighton. “They’ve gone as far to say our shoes haven’t measured up. That’s ridiculous. We've been in this business for 110 years.”
LeBretton said the company recognizes it’s taking a risk by challenging the Obama administration over the trade agreement, which he says could come up for a vote in Congress at any time before the end of the year. “This is a pretty drastic step for us to call out the president and the Department of Defense,” he said.
Both the Maine and Massachusetts congressional delegations, he said, have been supportive of the company’s efforts to land a Pentagon contract for its athletic footwear. As for the TPP, LeBretton said it’s telling that the two leading Republican presidential contenders Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and the two Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, are in agreement that the TPP is a bad deal for American workers.
“From here on out we’re going to be a vocal advocate for our workers and against the TPP, unless it’s fixed,” LeBretton said. “This agreement has to be defeated.”
Maine delegation presses the case
In a joint statement sent to Mainebiz this morning, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King vowed to continue pressing the Obama administration to begin purchasing American-made footwear for the U.S. military. Both were among 15 senators who had sent a letter to Obama in April 2013 urging him to take that step. In May 2013, Collins authored and King cosponsored a bill requiring the Pentagon to treat athletic footwear like every other uniform item, including boots, to ensure they would be procured from American manufacturers like New Balance.
“The intent of the Berry amendment is clear: the military will provide its personnel with American-made equipment and uniforms whenever possible,” the senators said in their statement. “It continues to perplex us why the Department of Defense continues to drag its feet in aligning its practices with the requirements of this law, especially when the hardworking men and women of New Balance make some of the finest American-made shoes available. American workers can meet the footwear requirements of nearly all our military service members, and we will continue to press the Department of Defense to see that they are finally given the full opportunity to do so.”
Brendan Conley, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, told Mainebiz the 2nd District congressman is working to add language in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act to require the Pentagon to fully implement the Berry Amendment.
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