As an example, if an American buys a Chinese coffee maker priced at $100 and there is a 50% tariff, there is a $50 tariff that is paid by the importing American to the American government.
The total cost to the importing American is $150. Now, if this price is equal to or higher than an American coffee maker then the importing American is incentivized to purchase the American coffee maker instead.
As another example, if Tesla sells Model 3s for $50,000 and BYD comes in with a similar spec car priced at $25,000, then putting a 100% tariff on it will drive BYD's effective price up to $43,000 allowing Tesla to compete without undercutting or outright selling at a loss.
Essentially, tariffs are a way to ensure that the pricing floor of the domestic market is not driven down unreasonably by international markets at the cost of the importers.
* Figures out how to make it even cheaper (unlikely)
* Figure out how to avoid the tariff legally: Maybe move the manufacture or assembly to Mexico for the US market.
* Claim the product is something else, just enough to avoid the tariff(i.e. claim it's a tea maker, not a coffee maker)
* Stop selling in the US since they won't get any sales
* etc.
In fact depending on your tarriff regime, this can incentivize a bunch industries to actually raise prices if the new import cost is higher then they would currently sell at.
If a consumer walks into a store and sees coffeemakers by ten different brands, but seven are all actually owned by one giant manufacturer and the other three by some American almost-as-giant manufacturer, then a tariff on the former will drive up the price of seven of them and the American manufacturer will almost certainly raise the prices on the remaining three. Otherwise, it's just bad business.
Doesn't that mean that American will have to pay $50 000 for a car that is worth $25 000? While people in other countries will be able to buy cars cheaper, buy more of them and maybe it somehow improves their life quality.
Which is not always a bad idea, having a local supply and innovation of something can be rather important, local money is less "Gone" than foreign money, think of how healthy small towns are when all of the shops are local vs when they are not.
The problem comes when there is no realistic local competition. If you don't make something locally at all, an import tariff is just a stupid tax.
Americans will be buying Chinese goods with "made in Vietnam" or "made in Mexico" stamped on it. The American profit will be in setting up those laundering schemes
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/23/1197961495/the-trade-fraud-de...
No bribery required though, at least in most cases.
It was cheaper to build your excavator outside the country than pay the tariffs on importing the materials to build the excavator here.
It was an objective failure. It also resulted in very smartly targeted payback that caused serious financial distress to a bunch of blue collar American food producers who sell a lot to China because the American market is literally not big enough (my state sells millions of pounds of lobster to China, those lobstermen still vote for Trump).
This is because Trump is objectively a fucking moron, and if you tell him "No, your idea is wrong because you don't know what you are talking about", he gives you the same "You're fired" speech from his damn television show, replaces you with a sycophant, and then does the stupid thing.
Any prediction that starts with "Trump will do the Tariffs in the way that requires second order thinking" is doomed to failure.
Basically everyone is already employed.
too late relative to what?