WASHINGTON — Today, Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), issued the following on today’s introduction of the Pink Tariffs Study Act by Representatives Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) and Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.):
“As Representatives Fletcher and Pettersen introduce the Pink Tariffs Study Act today, they are rightly going beyond pure — and fully justified — opposition to Mr. Trump’s tariff increases. By helping alert policymakers to unequal tariff taxation of American women, and tariff rates biased against lower-income families, their bill will help us design a better and fairer system.
“Economists have long known that tariffs are a poor form of taxation. As taxation of purchases of goods, they tax hourly-wage families more than wealthy households, and impose greater cost burdens on goods-using industries like retail, manufacturing, farming, restaurants, and homebuilding than on services- and investment-heavy industries. Even within this context, the U.S. tariff system is far more regressive than those of most of our trading partners — for example, by taxing polyester clothes more heavily than silks, and cheap stainless steel silverware more than sterling silver. And it appears to be unique in the world in taxing women’s clothes more heavily than directly analogous men’s clothes. This gender bias in the two clothing chapters likely costs women at least $2.5 billion per year.
“The Pink Tariffs Study Act directs the Treasury Department to conduct a formal study of the U.S. tariff system for gender bias and regressivity — something neither the Treasury Department nor other trade agencies with tariff powers, such as Customs and Border Protection or the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, have ever done. This would give Congress the data and information it will need as it reasserts its Constitutional authority over tariff policy and begins to undo the harms Mr. Trump’s policies are causing. We are proud to applaud and endorse their work.”
Gresser’s pathbreaking research has repeatedly analyzed U.S. tariff data to explain an opaque system and illuminate inequity in the country’s tariff taxation system, especially on women’s clothes and household consumer goods such as shoes, silverware, and home linens. Most recently, PPI has warned of the economic risks posed by Trump’s tariff policies in a recent report and detailed these concerns in testimony before Congress. PPI outlined four key principles for responding to tariff-driven economic isolationism:
For further context on the Constitution over tariffs and taxation and how the legislative, not executive branch, has the authority, see the full text of the U.S. Constitution.
Founded in 1989, PPI is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Find an expert and learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Follow us @PPI.
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Media Contact: Ian O’Keefe – iokeefe@ppionline.org
