Comment by phil21
3 days ago
Importer != Consumer. I think that's very obvious to anyone paying attention to this whole thing. In fact, it's a small minority of imports that are direct to consumer.
It absolutely is a mix of the importer (e.d. manufacturer, producer, wholesaler, retailer, etc.) absorbing some in their margin and the consumer picking up the bill via price increases for the rest.
It's quite obviously not 96% being paid by the consumer across the board just from looking at the CPI numbers.
All this study states is the obvious: foreign producers didn't lower their cost by much in response to tariff burden. They largely charged the same rate to a buyer in the US vs. a buyer in Germany.
This isn't to defend the tariff situation - just that this study gets trotted out a whole lot in an extremely disingenuous manner. Other data that exists is better that measures direct consumer impact.
The study makes it clear that the people footing the bill for the tariffs are in the US - it is not the rest of the world paying Trump's taxes, it's Americans, whether directly as consumers or importers.