Edla Lula
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília - The president of the country's footwear trade association (Associação Brasileira da Indústria de Calçados) (Abicalçados), Élcio Jacometti, says the valorization of Brazilian currency against the dollar and predatory competition by Chinese exporters are the principal causes of the crisis the sector is going through.

"We cannot compete with shoes that come into Brazil costing US$0.50 a pair, when we know that that is less than what shoestrings cost," complains Jacometti, who met with president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other authorities in Brasilia this week.

The government has announced credit for the sector and says that customs officials will crackdown on the entrance of underpriced Chinese goods. And a work group was set up to study tax exemptions on machinery and equipment for the footwear sector.

Translation: Allen Bennett