US sportswear giant Nike said Tuesday it was withdrawing its latest shoe after Panama's indigenous Guna community accused it of "pirating" a protected traditional design.

Lawyers for the Guna said the special-edition Air Force 1 model shoe sports a traditional "mola" design without their permission, flouting their intellectual property rights.

They had demanded the company pull out of a planned June 6 launch of the $100 shoe.

After being contacted by AFP, a Nike spokesperson said: "We apologize for the inaccurate representation of the design origin for the Nike Air Force 1 'Puerto Rico' 2019. As a result, this product will no longer be available."

Guna lawyer Aresio Valiente told AFP the indigenous people were not just seeking the product's withdrawal, but also damages as the shoe "is part of the spirituality of the Guna people."

"So the company has to compensate us because it was an illegal copy of our designs," Valiente said, adding that they had "already sent a note of protest" to Nike.

Industry website Sneaker News reported that Nike said the design was a tribute to Puerto Rico and featured a graphic representing the native Coqui frog.

However, Guna chief Belisario Lopez told a press conference in Panama City: "They must recognize that the mola that appears on the Nike shoes is from the Guna people."

Lopez said the Guna people's case against Nike was "not the only one in the world. Thousands of designs and the ancestral knowledge of indigenous people are being pirated by multinational companies."

The Guna people live in communities in Panama and Colombia. Most Guna live in Kuna Yala, also known as the San Blas islands, off the Caribbean coast of Panama. Environmentalists say the low-lying islands are being threatened by rising seas due to global warming.

"The mola is like a flag for the Guna. There is really a cultural identity that is articulated around the mola. It is a very strong element of identity," said Monica Martinez, professor of social anthropology at Barcelona University who has been studying the Guna for nearly two decades.

There are "more and more cases" worldwide in which indigenous people are reporting theft of their intellectual property by designers or large companies, Martinez said.

"The interesting thing here is that there are debates in the World Intellectual Property Organization and there are demands from indigenous peoples that something has to be done. But nothing is being done."

Adidas, Nike, PUMA say new tariffs on China would be 'catastrophic'
Washington (AFP) May 21, 2019 - Adidas, Nike and PUMA on Tuesday urged US President Donald Trump to prevent the shoe industry from falling victim to the trade war with China, saying new tariffs could be "catastrophic."

In a letter to Trump, those big name manufacturers joined forces with more than 170 other American shoe manufacturers and retailers calling for footwear to be exempted from a new round of punitive tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods.

In the escalating trade war with Beijing, Trump this month increased existing tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent, and is threatening to extend those duties to nearly all Chinese products imported into the United States.

That would mean additional taxes on a range of consumer goods, including electronics and clothing, such as athletic shoes and iPhones, which has sparked fear in retailers and producers who rely on goods from China.

"The proposed additional tariff of 25 percent on footwear would be catastrophic for our consumers, our companies, and the American economy as a whole," the letter from the shoe coalition states.

The firms said the industry already pays $3 billion in duties and that additional tariffs would increase costs and prices.

- US consumers pay the price -

"There should be no misunderstanding that US consumers pay for tariffs on products that are imported," the companies said, refuting Trump's frequent erroneous statement that China pays the tariffs, creating a windfall for the US Treasury.

While Trump has called on industries to move away from China or produce their products in the United States, the shoe industry firms said they need "years of planning... to make sourcing decisions and companies cannot simply move factories to adjust to these changes."

The shoe industry -- including other names like Reebok, Ariat and Crocs, as well as retailers like Foot Locker -- is the latest to wade into the debate.

While many companies and industries want to see changes in China's policies, including resolving the issue of theft of US technology, they oppose using tariffs as the primary weapon.

In a letter just after the new tariffs were announced, a group of 17 industry groups urged Trump to reconsider, given their reliance on China for goods.

"In 2017, China accounted for about 41% of all apparel, 72% of all footwear, and 84% of all travel goods imported into the United States," the letter said.

The US Trade Representative's office published a list of products that would be targeted by new tariffs, and has called for public comment, including a hearing set for June 17.

In prior rounds of tariffs, the White House granted exemptions for some critical products at the request of US industries.

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Beijing (AFP) May 20, 2019
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