MERCEDES, United States: The manufacture of iconic “made in the USA” cowboy boots is set to suffer from President Donald Trump’s 30 percent tariffs on South African exports due to come into force Friday. Texas’s most renowned makers of the southern US fashion staple source the ostrich leather they require exclusively from South Africa. “We want manufacturing in the US, but there are some things that we’re just not set up to manufacture…We can’t raise ostriches here in the United States at the level, to the quality, we don’t have the meat demand here. We need to partner with countries that can do that,” says Ryan Vaughan, CEO of a boot manufacturing company, Rios De Mercedes, in Texas. — Gianrigo Marletta/AFPTV/AFP
Where Integrity is Everything
