Though the largest categories of the United States (US) imports tend to carry relatively low tariff rates, imported clothing is the main exception to this, a Washington-based Pew Research Center analysis finds.
It shows that two main classifications of “apparel and clothing accessories” together accounted for US$80.6 billion in imports last year, which was 3.5 per cent of the country’s total import.
Nearly $64 billion or 79 per cent of those imports were ‘dutiable’ or subject to duty, the study finds.
It also shows that the average tariffs on the dutiable portions were 18.7 per cent for knitwear and 15.8 per cent for woven garments, which are the highest average rates out of 98 broad import categories of the US.
As a result, the major import sources of clothing have to face high tariffs in the US market. China, Vietnam and Bangladesh are the top three clothing sources of the US.
Bangladeshi clothing exporters have been facing high tariffs in the US as the country is yet to get duty-free market access.
Footwear tariff rate was close behind those of knitwear and woven garments, the analysis shows, as its almost all import worth $25.5 billion made by the US is subject to 11.9 per cent average tariff.