Dear Editor
The dictionary definition of tariff is “duties or taxes paid on imported goods.” I looked it up to make sure I was giving truthful information. I then went to the internet. It used to be that you had to dumb down your question to get an answer. Now you can ask a complex question and get a thorough one.
I queried: “If tariffs are duties or taxes paid on imported goods, who pays the taxes and to whom?”
Answer: When it comes to tariffs and taxes on imported goods, the importer typically pays the customs duty to the local customs authority upon arrival of the goods.
Tariffs are a type of tax imposed on imports to protect domestic industries and raise revenue, and they are usually collected at the point of entry. In terms of who pays the taxes, most import taxes — including VAT and GST — are added to the cost of the imported goods and are often passed on to consumers by increasing the prices of the products. This means that while the importer pays the customs duties, the end user of the goods may ultimately bear the cost of these taxes through higher prices.
Isn’t this what we all suspected? You could strike out the words “often” and “may.” That’s the way it goes down.
As far as protecting domestic industries goes, I beg to ask how many industries in the U.S. are making anything. Our president must have a bag of magic beans that he can throw out to make factories pop up. Someone — or several someones — have to be willing to invest in the real estate, the construction, the machines, technology, and robots. Few people work in factories anymore. Besides, no one wants to work in a factory, no one wants to pay the wages and benefits to the few humans who would be involved, and we don’t need the drain on our energy and water, as well as the added cost of infrastructure for waste elimination.
Let them make it overseas at a lower cost, polluting their own air, rivers, streams, and groundwater, using their own energy and water. We’ve got a good thing going here. Tariffs are unnecessary. They only serve as a source of revenue — out of our pockets — to fund things we don’t approve of.
Our president seems to long for the 1950s, when there was no concern for pollution, human health, or equal rights. Do we really want to go back there?
Troy J. Kiefer, Perryville
