Tariffs

Recently (early 2025) Mr. Trump has said that he would place tariffs on foreign goods coming to the United States and these tariffs would be much larger than the costs of child care, implying, but not explicitly saying, that using these tariffs is how he would pay for child care for all American families.

Tariffs, however do not cost the exporting countries, such as China, money. Importing nations establish tariffs to make the costs of imported materials more expensive in the hope that residents will buy items made in the home country.

Let’s be more specific. When we place a tariff on cotton cloth or manufactured clothes made of cotton cloth coming from China, we do not collect that tariff in China. We do not charge the Chinese companies growing the cotton, or manufacturing the cloth, or making that cloth into shirts. We have no authority in China, nor in any other country, to collect tariffs which the United States government levies on foreign materials. The tariff levied by the American government is charged to the American firm importing those cotton materials at the American port of entry. Those American businesses then include the tariffs into the costs of the goods imported. They charge the American customer for those costs; American consumers pay those tariffs.

Tariffs may possibly be used by Mr. Trump to pay for child care for every American family, but each American family will actually pay that tax whenever they buy goods manufactured or grown in China or in any other country where the US government has imposed a tariff.

Tariffs are taxes our government places on Americans to protect American manufacturers. The funds come from the pockets of all Americans who buy these goods, whether the goods are automobiles, clothes, school supplies, toys; if the American president imposes a tariff on a group of foreign goods, American public pays that tax.