Money Well Spent? Why Fashion Companies Spend Big on Lobbying Governments
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would eliminate tariffs on textiles and apparel between 12
nations, including the US — the world’s largest consumer of apparel —
and Vietnam, the third largest emerging market apparel supplier after
China and Bangladesh. In 2014, US companies paid $400 million in tariffs
on shoes imported from TPP countries, according to the Footwear
Distributors and Retailers of America.
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This year, driven by the TPP, fashion companies have spent big on
lobbying. In the first half of 2015, the National Retail Federation
spent $3 million on lobbying the US government; Target, $770,000; JC
Penney, $410,000; Gap, $160,000, according to US Federal Lobbying
Disclosures.
Compared to the sums spent by an industry like pharmaceuticals, this
is small change. (According to the Center for Responsive Politics,
10,616 lobbyists have spent nearly $1.63 billion this year.)
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Still, corporate lobbying isn’t always successful.
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The Design Piracy Prohibition Act (DPPA) would have given designers
three years of intellectual property protection if they registered a new
design within six months. The CFDA hired two lobbyists, one with ties
to each political party, and the bill gained bipartisan support,
including from high-profile senators such as Hillary Clinton. Designers
including Zac Posen and
Narciso Rodriguez argued the case in Washington. However, it still failed to pass.
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“Creating legislation from scratch, to benefit a specific industry, that
is a much more difficult challenge,” explains Susan Scafidi, academic
director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University, who helped
draft the proposed design protection bill. “Because you have to develop
the interest in creating any regulation at all.”
http://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/money-well-spent-why-fashion-companies-spend-big-on-lobbying-governments
