How Underwear Tariffs Are Biased

By Elaine Schwartz of econlife. Excerpt:

"Usually, a pink “tax” refers to higher prices for products that target women. Now though, we are really talking taxes.

In her Opinion column, financial journalist Catherine Rampbell tells of the import taxes that disadvantage women. First focusing on underwear, she compared gender by fabric. For silk underwear, the men “pay” .9 percent and the women, 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, with cotton, the taxes ascend to 7.4 percent for the men and 7.6 percen, the women, And then, finally, with polyester underwear, we have 14.9 percent and 16 percent."

She also shows how luxury goods have lower import tax rates than non-luxury goods. So they favor higher income consumers. They are regressive.