Bill Would Require Report on Regressive Effects of Tariffs, Gender Bias in HTS
A bill requiring a study on gender bias and regressive effects of the U.S. tariff system was introduced April 10, and has been endorsed by the New Democrat Coalition Trade Task Force, which is led by one of the bill's co-sponsors, Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas.
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Fletcher noted that tariff rates on mass-market items haven't changed in decades. "While often hidden from public view, tariffs have a significant impact on the prices Americans pay in stores every day," she said.
"We’ve all heard of the ‘pink tax,’ where women’s products cost more than comparable products for men, but something we haven’t begun to investigate is how our tariff system is also playing a role in price discrepancies,” said co-sponsor Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo.
Former Office of the U.S. Trade Representative policy adviser Ed Gresser, now director of trade and global markets at the Progressive Policy Institute, endorsed the bill as well. "It is far past time for U.S. policymakers to systematically examine our tariff system, which currently appears to tax women more than men and low-income families more than high-income families."
The press release announcing the bill cited Gresser's work, which showed that when comparing tariff lines of men's and women's clothing, women's apparel is taxed on average at 16.7%, 2.9 percentage points higher than the 13.6% average for men's apparel. The same blog post noted that only 12% of imported apparel -- and almost all apparel is imported -- comes in under trade preference programs or free trade agreements.
American Apparel and Footwear Association CEO Steve Lamar responded to the bill's introduction by saying: “There is no room for gender bias in trade or tariff policy, yet this legacy has been allowed to persist for nearly 100 years. Thanks to Reps Fletcher and Pettersen, and to the Progressive Policy Institute, for advancing the dialogue on this issue. We look forward to working on a bipartisan basis with Congress and the Administration to make sure our tariff policy sheds its regressive and misogynistic features.”
The bill is called the Pink Tariffs Study Act.