Trump’s Tariffs

Trump has claimed he will protect American workers from unfair trade tactics.  In an attempt to living up to his claim of being a “tariff man” he demonstrated is economic ignorance and a total disregard for the effect of tariffs on Americans.  It is hard to believe that anyone in this day and age would believe that companies exporting products to the United States pay the costs of Trump imposed tariffs.  Yet Trump bragged about the amount of money the United States received from the increased tariffs on Chinese-made products.  He took this absurdity a step further by claiming tariffs on auto parts made in Mexico would pay for the wall.  While it is not beyond the possible that Trump, himself is ignorant when it comes to knowing just who actually pays the government imposed tariffs it is really hard to believe that apparently no one working in his administration is aware of where the money comes from.  Well, Mr. Trump, the reality is tariffs are paid by those Americans who actually purchase the products on which you levied tariffs.  As you are unaware, any tariff is not paid by the product manufacturer not by the government of the country of origin.  Tariffs are paid by the importer who brings a foreign made product with an imposed tariff into the country.  When you raised tariffs on Chinese products from 3% to 19% you raised the prices American consumers pay in U.S. stores.  Raise the price on steel and you increase the costs of products made from steel and that price increase is paid by American Consumers.  Rather than saving jobs, tariffs cost the average American consumer over $1,800 a year, about the amount of your “great” middle class tax cut.  In addition, your tariffs cost about $900 per “protected worker”.  Oh, by the way, your wall on the southern border is not being paid for by Mexico and any money from tariffs imposed on Mexican made products are, like all tariffs, paid by the consumer of those products.  Making matters worse, the merchants that sell products on which tariffs have been imposed do not just pass those costs onto the American consumer on a dollar for dollar basis.  Just as merchants do not normally sell their products at their costs but they mark up their costs so a dollar ($1.00) on a tariffed product will end up as a two or three ($2.00 or $3.00) at the cash register.  While it is obvious Trump has a problem with the truth, the American treasury and the American consumer would benefit far more if he imposed a tariff on each and every one of his lies.