Foreign countries pay US tariffs
| Foreign countries pay US tariffs | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "When the United States imposes tariffs on imports, foreign countries such as China pay them, bringing money into the US Treasury at no cost to Americans." | |
| Domain | Economy & Labor |
| Tactic | False Context Propaganda Technique |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2018 |
| Origin | Statements by US officials, including President Donald Trump, during the 2018–2019 trade war and later |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-29 |
| Further reading: books on Economy & Labor | |
The claim that foreign countries pay US tariffs misstates how tariffs work. A tariff is a tax collected by US Customs from the importer, usually an American company, when goods enter the country. Studies of the 2018–2019 tariffs found that nearly all of the cost was passed on to US importers and consumers.
The claim
Officials said China was paying billions to the US Treasury through tariffs.
What the evidence shows
- Who pays. US importers pay tariffs to US Customs and Border Protection.
- Price studies. Economists Mary Amiti, Stephen Redding and David Weinstein found almost complete pass-through of the 2018 tariffs to US domestic prices. Another major study reached similar conclusions.
- Exceptions. Foreign exporters sometimes cut prices to keep market share, absorbing part of the cost. That share has been small in US studies.
Sources
- Mary Amiti, Stephen J. Redding and David E. Weinstein, "The Impact of the 2018 Tariffs on Prices and Welfare," Journal of Economic Perspectives 33, no. 4 (2019).
- Pablo D. Fajgelbaum, Pinelopi K. Goldberg, Patrick J. Kennedy and Amit K. Khandelwal, "The Return to Protectionism," Quarterly Journal of Economics 135, no. 1 (2020).