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Comment by elil17 | Hacker News Reader

No, as it clearly says in the article, there is a difference in tariff rate. If you dig down to the actual tariff schedules, you will see that women pay a higher tariff rate for underwear even when it is made of the exact same material category as men's underwear. There are literally seperate Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes for men and women's underwear (same thing applies for many other types of clothing, e.g. coats).

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It's a shame they didn't delve into why the rates were set as they are, it'd be nice if the International Trade Commission had to document a justification for their rates, but the article does mention that women's underwear is sold at higher volumes than men's, and are likely more expensive to start with too. The idea that we've been increasing taxes on items which are both more expensive and sell more often doesn't really surprise me.

Sales volume may also help account for why more high quality clothes made from expensive materials that are purchased less often get lower rates than frequently purchased low quality clothing intended for the working class (the majority of purchasers).

Unfortunately most tariff decisions happen behind closed doors. It's an area of the law plagued by special interests.

Wait what? You want ACTUAL journalism...?

Same material or not, womens clothing is often more labor intensive to make and therefore more expensive than mens clothes.

Then I will pay a higher dollar amount of tariffs for each garment. But why does that mean that I should have to pay a higher tariff rate?

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