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V O L . X X I N O. V I I A P R I L 6 , 2 0 1 5 18 opening of negotiations in 2010. But the company has made it clear that if tariff s dating back to the 1930s are eliminated — as Vietnam and the world's largest shoemaker, Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike Inc., would like — it would risk more than 850 manufacturing jobs at New Balance's three Maine factories and another 500 jobs at two factories in Massachusetts. New Balance argues that it would have a competitive disadvantage against Vietnamese shoemakers whose workers earn an average of $90 to $129 a month. Negotiations are in the end game for the trade agreement, and the Obama administration is push- ing Congress to grant it "fast track" authority to set the terms and sign the agreement before the House and Senate vote on it, with no amendments allowed and strict limits being placed on debate. A fast track bill to accomplish that could come to a vote in Congress as early as mid-April. New Balance declined to be interviewed for this story, but off ered the following statement from Matt LeBretton, its vice president for public aff airs: "We are closely monitoring both Trans-Pacifi c Partnership and Trade Promotion Authority [i.e., fast track] to ensure that the interests of the men and women who make New Balance shoes in Maine and Massachusetts are not negatively impacted. Our commitment to making shoes in the United States has not wavered and with the help of Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King we have made our position clear to the Obama administration. We are hopeful that the TPP, when and if it is passed, will refl ect our commitment to making shoes in the United States." In Maine, New Balance has plants in Norridgewock, Skowhegan and Norway. New Balance has 1,350 U.S. employees, an "all-time company high," Amy Dow, New Balance's senior global corporate communications manager, said in an email to Mainebiz. Sales revenue has more than doubled in the last fi ve years to a record of $3.3 billion in 2014. In its battle over the TPP, New Balance has an ally in the Rubber and Plastic Footwear Manufacturers Association, which represents the company and other footwear fi rms that support 4,000 domestic jobs. "Eliminating these tariff s as part of the TPP at the request of the Vietnamese government would eff ec- tively end footwear manufacturing in the United States and destroy an important part of our industrial base that dates back to our country's founding," the group's trade counsel testifi ed last spring at a House committee hearing on President Obama's trade agenda. e trade group told committee members Vietnam's footwear industry "is doing very well under the current tariff system and does not need assistance getting its products to U.S. customers," citing a fi vefold increase in Vietnam's total footwear imports between 2002 and 2013, with a 10% market share of roughly 235 million pairs of shoes valued at almost $3 billion in 2013. In a pointed reference to Nike, which no lon- ger manufactures footwear in the United States, its testimony concluded: " e administration should not give an advantage to footwear companies that manufacture all of their products overseas, at the expense of … domestic footwear manufacturers that are committed to keeping jobs in the United States. U.S workers will lose jobs if this occurs." Nike: Eliminate the tariff As wages in China continue to climb, the footwear industry is accelerating the movement of manu- facturing facilities to lower-wage areas, notably Vietnam, which is the world's No. 2 shoemaker after China. Vietnam's wages are reportedly 38% of China's; TPP could accelerate the shift from fac- tories in China to those in Vietnam. An estimated 600 businesses employ more than 1.1 million work- ers, who produce 800 million pairs of shoes annu- ally in Vietnam, according to anh Nien News. Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE), which had sales last year of $27.8 billion, a 10% gain, has 333,591 workers at 67 factories in Vietnam, with 39% of them manu- facturing footwear, according to its website. Given its investment in production in Vietnam, Nike has been one of the more vocal supporters of eliminat- ing the footwear tariff . Although the issue is often framed as a 'New Balance vs. Nike' issue, it's actually broader than that, pitting a host of footwear export- ers against a handful of domestic manufacturers. " e industry and our consumers paid over $2.7 billion in footwear duties in 2014, more than $400 million of which was taxed on TPP footwear imports alone," says Matt Priest, president of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, which represents more than 130 companies, 200 brands and 80% of total U.S. footwear sales. "Imagine the impact on consumers and footwear companies if outdated footwear tariff s from the 1930s — reaching upwards of 67.5% — were elimi- nated on footwear out of TPP countries." Eliminating the tariff , Priest's group argues, would create "new footwear design, marketing, distribution, and retail jobs." Conspicuously absent from that lineup: manufacturing. Fast track authority Negotiations for the TPP, which have been drag- ging on since 2010, still have a handful of unre- solved issues. President Obama highlighted the proposed trade agreement in his State of the Union speech on Jan. 20, urging Congress to act quickly on passing a Trade Promotion Authority bill, more commonly referred to as "fast track," setting the stage for an up-or-down vote on the TPP, with no amendments and limited debate, possibly in the fall. U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the U.S. Senate committee responsible for trade, has been pushing for a fast track vote soon after Congress returns from its Easter recess. Ironically, President Obama is getting more support from Republicans than Democrats on the fast track bill. 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