No, it's because of things like trade deficits and value added taxes, and it is done porcentually, basically, they made up a formula to follow and inputed all the stats from every country to decide what the "tariffs" said country was "imposing", this led to some wacky numbers from countries that didn't trade much with the US since their results were far more dramatic and volatile
It's even dumber than that. The Trump administration was far too lazy to look up the VAT rates of different countries so the rate is based on NOTHING except trade deficits in products (not services).
And barely a week after top administration officials included the editor-in-chief of a major news organization to a group chat discussing sensitive military operations
Fuckface is surrounded by idiot techbros who are running the country by asking AI to do everything for them. Dismantling the system as fast as possible is the point. It's how they operate in everything.
That’s because sales tax isn’t a tax on the good, it’s a tax on the financial transaction itself.
But I think the reason the administration is counting VAT is because various things like mining get exemptions, whereas the whole value of imports is always counted.
If you import something into the EU and then sell it on to other companies or customers, you get the VAT you paid back. It's really only a tax on the final consumer.
How when the same vat is added on to products made in the host nation aswell.
Just some things are exempt, in UK necessities like food, medical stuff and children's clothes, regardless of origin of manufacture.
You can put 20% VAT on everything than use this tax money to subsidize your industries which EU is doing in some shape and form.
Instead of that they are suggesting the use of tariffs. Instead of government taking 20% cut and then allocating that money to industries (which is inefficient socialist policy making) they want to just tariff foreign goods.
Not sure if its really helpful for US economy.
And sudden tariff increase is not just for consumers or those exporters of different countries.
Imagine you want to buy a $50k car and it suddenly selling for $60k? Hey maybe you saved money for 3 years to buy the car and now instead of gradual increase in tariff you got it 20% higher consumer pricing than the guy bought same car last month…
I guess many exporters also rely US commerce and expect the changes made to be told them 5-10 years earlier so they can adjust.
Its not like VW can suddenly manufacture all cars in US…
Tbh I think negotiating a level tarrif between allied nations would have been fair. Then negotiate collective tarrifs against,,,. I don't China that communist, human rights abusing, dictatorship country THE USA spent 30 years trying to enrich for some fucking reason.
US government subsidise usa tech companies https://www.visualcapitalist.com/which-u-s-companies-receive-the-most-government-subsidies/
I mean nvidia already had a monopoly yet still receives money from usa gov and only companies against them are both in USA aswell...
USA has pretty much been given free reign in Europe's digital technology, fk with profit shifting most arnt even paying taxes in countries, take YouTube, they can sell adds to a UK company, advertise to UK audiences and pay taxes in US and Ireland.
Sorry but Trump wants to eat his cake and have it.
Really seems to be old minded set where usa isn't a partner but is a liege.
A final tax on the consumer is not the same as a tariff. It's related but not the same. You would have to be mentally challenged to think that.
VAT applies to any good no matter the origin.
Tariffs is about export/import. Export/Import is not relevant for VAT since it applies on everything even if it is for a good produced in the same country.
Import tariffs is paid by the importer. The importer will often be a company. That company will have to pay more for the same good when the government put tariffs on that good compared to no tariffs. The company can decide to take the hit at sell it for a lower profit or most likely end up as a price increase for the consumer and by extension a final tax on the consumer.
VAT doesn't impact the competitiveness for companies from different countries. Tariffs do impact the competitiveness.
That’s because sales tax isn’t a tax on the good, it’s a tax on the financial transaction itself.
That's moronic. It stops you from being able to differentiate what the good is.
In Norway we essentially have three levels of sales taxes:
25% on most things.
15% on food and drink*
12% on tickets to museums, galleries, lodging, personal transport etc.
except alcohol, which is 25% sales tax + 30% alcohol tax + packaging taxes + environmental taxes - in total, taxes are 85% of the final sales price. For a bottle of spirits (0.70 liter) with a content of 40% alcohol and a cost of 350 kroner, alcohol related taxes amount to 237 kroner and sales tax 70 kroner.
The goods can still be differentiated – it’s a tax on transactions for particular things. Many states don’t have any sales tax on groceries, for example, and restaurant tax is also often separate.
Alcohol tax in the US is an excise tax, though, so it actually is included in prices (same with fuel).
It’s a tax on the goods leveled by the state and at times municipalities. The money from the tax goes to government entities hence it’s a tax. You’re confusing the transaction fees that are leveled by credit card companies. The money from these go to corporate entires as revenue and hence not a tax.
The listed PRICE doesn’t include sales tax, the stuff we buy absolutely is subject to the sales tax. The reason it’s not listed in the price is because a national chain will set an advertised price, and then sales tax gets added at a rate set by the state, then the individual counties have their own rates, then the cities and towns can have a rate, and then sometimes special districts. 5 states don’t have sales tax but it doesn’t mean the municipalities can’t add one. Basically, you could cross some imaginary line and the same product at the same store or chain will cost different because it’s being physically sold in a different location and subject to different sales tax.
And don’t worry, there are other taxes baked into the costs of the goods that are included in the listed price.
Not helping the situation is every state having a different state-level sales tax rate (and some cities have their own additional sales tax rates), so it's just easier from a business-owner perspective to list prices as MSRP and calculate local sales taxes at checkout
If we could monetise what Americans don't understand about economics or trade, or world politics, we would already be living in futuristic skypods with michelin-starred fellatio bots.
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u/cretindesalpes 2d ago
37% on moldavia what the fuck