Catherine Rampell is an economics writer for the Washington Post. In an article in 2023, she observed that "the average U.S. tariff rate on men's underwear is 11.5 percent. The average rate on women's undies, on the other hand? It's a few points higher, at 15.5 percent." She notes that women's underwear tends to be more labor-intensive to produce and, therefore, it may have been more difficult decades ago for U.S. garment manufacturers to compete against imports from low-wage countries. She cites research from Miguel Acosta of the Federal Reserve Board and Lydia Cox of Yale showing that trade negotiations the United States entered into during the 1930s and 1940s often resulted in higher tariff rates on more labor-intensive products. Rampell also notes that "in the end, these protectionist policies proved ineffective, shielding U.S. companies from competition; garment manufacturing for both genders...almost entirely left the United States anyway."
Source: Catherine Rampell, "What Women's Underwear Tells Us About Our Trade System," Washington Post, February 9, 2023; and Miguel Acosta and Lydia Cox, "The Regressive Nature of the U.S. Tariff Code: Origins and Implications," September 8, 2022.
Which of the following best explains why the United States would continue to impose tariffs on imported underwear if there are few domestic underwear producers left in the country?
A. Logrolling, because members of Congress who represent districts with domestic underwear producers promise to support other member's bills if they, in turn, continue to support underwear tariffs.
B. Protecting infant industries, because many domestic underwear producers are new to the industry, these firms need protection from foreign competition to become more efficient in their production processes.
C. Protecting high wages, because U.S. workers in these industries earn wages well above the national average, and it would be quite harmful to local communities to lose these jobs.
D. Health and safety requirements, because some people believe that underwear producers in other countries do not follow proper safety standards in their factories, allowing them to undercut U.S. prices for these products.
