Gender and Tariff Classification: Current Status in the United States and a Look at Best Practices

Abstract

Gender classification in tariff laws is not a new phenomenon, but it has led to disparate results in tariff rates. These disparities result from both international efforts for harmonization and domestic pressures for protectionism and trade negotiations. Although the gender classifications and their respective tariff disparities have been challenged in U.S. courts on equal protection grounds, there has thus far been no success. Other countries provide examples of other methods of reducing both gender classification and disparity of tariff rates amongst these gender classifications through policy means instead of through the courts. Although U.S. courts are likely to find that gender classifications to be legal, the United States can follow the policy examples of other countries by reducing the amount gender classification and creating parity among duties rates in those that remain.