There is increasing recognition of women suffering a ‘pink tax’, paying higher prices for (near) identical products than those marketed to men. One potential cause of this is governments charging different import tariffs on men's and women's clothing, facilitated by the fact that the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) splits all apparel by gender. This article examines four questions: why are the HS codes disaggregated by gender in this one sector; to what extent do countries charge different tariffs on men's and women's clothing; where they do, who is being discriminated against; and how is the level and direction of discrimination changing over time? The analysis finds that around three quarters of countries do not discriminate in their tariff schedules. However, among those that do, contrary to the expectations of the pink tax literature states overall employ higher tariffs on men's clothes than women's, though there is some evidence that this is reversing over time and the result is heavily driven by a few outlier countries. The conclusion sets out some routes to tackling this discrimination if moves to mainstream gender into trade policy are to amount to more than rhetoric.
Policy implications
- Action should be taken at the World Customs Organization to remove the disaggregation of clothing tariffs into ‘men's’ and ‘women's’ sections within the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS).
- To that end, a proposal should be put forth by interested parties to the HS Committee of the World Customs Organization.
- The World Trade Organization should introduce an analysis of gender discrimination in clothing tariff schedules into its Trade Policy Review Mechanism.
- Policy makers should make note of the gendered nature of clothing tariffs and commit to eliminating discrimination within their tariff schedules by equalizing tariffs across ‘men's’ and ‘women's’ products.
Photo by Kai Pilger