No diga cuero si es plàstico. In other words: Don’t call it leather if its plastic. That’s the “statement” made by Argentina’s tanners, as they decided to begin “a contrasting campaign against the improper use” of the word “leather”. The Cámara Industrial de las Manufacturas del Cuero y Afines (CIMA) is working on a legislative proposal to ban the use of the word “leather” when describing “materials and product made of fake leather”. CIMA’s top representatives have decided to support the drawing of a law to make sure that products that are now defined as “eco-leather” will no oner contain the word “leather”.
“Don’t call it leather if it’s plastic”
“We don’t want the term eco-leather to be used anymore. It’s a lie: a plastic sheet under which to hide”, explained CIMA’s secretary general, Martin Occhione. According to data published by Argentinian tanners, national revenue fell by 25% between 2018 to 2019. Throughout the last 4 years, revenue has decreased at a yearly rate of -20%. At the same time, import have gone up from 28 million of 2018 to 62 million in 2019. Much of this decrement is supposedly attributable to the unfair competition from the so-called “alternative” materials.
UNIC’s battle
The battle being fought by Argentina’s tanners beats the same path as that of their Italian counterparts, which is led by UNIC – Italian Tanneries. The date of the publication of the legislation defending real leather from unfair competition came out of the local government on February 7th, 2020. It passed both votes in the House and Senate Committees.
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