1. The following are excerpts from an article by Mark Niquette, national government reporter for Bloomberg News in Ohio, dated January 17, 2019, under the headline "Trump’s Tariffs Are Producing Billions, But China Isn’t Paying".
(Begin excerpts)
President Donald Trump is right to say that his tariffs are generating billions of dollars for the U.S. But China and other countries aren’t paying them as he’s suggested....
While Trump has suggested on Twitter and in public comments that tariffs are somehow being charged to or paid by China and other countries, trade economists say that’s generally misleading. U.S. importers of record are responsible for the duties, and ultimately U.S. businesses and consumers could pay through higher costs, they say.
Trump is “suggesting this is bringing in lots of new revenue and all of the burden is falling on the Chinese,’’ said Phil Levy, senior fellow on the global economy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former senior economist for trade for President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. “I think that’s mostly false.’’
Johns Hopkins University applied economics professor Steve Hanke, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan, put it more bluntly.
“Tariffs on Chinese imports are paid by Americans, not by the Chinese or their government. The President’s tariffs are simply a #tax on American consumers,’’ Hanke said on Twitter Jan. 6....
Trump’s comments have suggested the U.S. is benefiting without paying, such as a Jan. 3 tweet that “the United States Treasury has taken in MANY billions of dollars from the Tariffs we are charging China and other countries that have not treated us fairly.” A day later he told reporters that “we’ve taken in billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from China and from others.’’
It’s not foreign governments paying, said Dan Anthony, vice president of The Trade Partnership, an economic consulting firm. U.S. businesses paid $2.8 billion in new Trump tariffs in October alone, The Trade Partnership determined in an analysis for Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, a coalition of business and agricultural groups lobbying against Trump’s duties....
“Let me be very clear: Tariffs are taxes paid by American families and American businesses -- not by foreigners,’’ Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in his annual state of American business address last week. (End excerpts)
2. Donald Trump is fooling either himself or his countrymen in his claim that America has "taken in billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from China and from others". In actuality, “tariffs on Chinese imports are paid by Americans, not by the Chinese or their government", as pointed out by Johns Hopkins University applied economics professor Steve Hanke, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan.
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... n-t-paying