What an odd thing to say.

The businesses in the other countries are, you know, businesses. Even if it were Chinese companies that were paying the tariffs, that will be baked into the cost of the good.

This is literally first-day economics. No such thing as a free lunch. The cost of the item that the end user pays should reflect all costs associated with production and distribution to that end user.

I have no idea how the fuck the rumor that these tariffs will be “paid by other countries” started. If there are suspicions that the tariffs are temporary then they might be willing to eat the cost temporarily so it’s not passed onto the consumer immediately, but that’s inherently temporary and not sustainable especially if it would make it so these companies are losing money.

▲ RupertSalt 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff

  A tariff or import tax is a duty imposed by a national government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods or raw materials and is paid by the exporter.

If an analysis says that "domestic consumers are paying 90%" of a tariff then they are simplifying the process that others are describing here as "baked into the cost" and I would say, more accurately, "the cost of tariffs are recouped from consumers/businesses by those who paid them (the importer)"

  The economic burden of tariffs falls on the importer, the exporter, and the consumer. [Wikipedia]

If economists are saying "consumers pay tariffs" then I would expect to see a notation on the price tags and a line-item on my receipts, but the cost of the tariff must be paid by the importer, or there won't be a consumer who can purchase the goods, let alone bear the costs of their tariffs.

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whattheheckheck an hour ago | parent | next [-]

The importer is the consumer...

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tombert 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am just saying that it eventually is paid by the end user, regardless of the bureaucratic steps in between. We can try and figure out who is directly paying them but I feel like that detail is unnecessary to my overall point.

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RupertSalt 5 hours ago | parent [-]

US Consumers pay in fungible dollars, and so if your company paid for three pizzas eaten by an AWS team, and I paid for 1 ounce of Maersk fuel oil, and our Starbucks venti latte purchases paid to rethatch Juan Valdez's hut, who can even trace the serial numbers on our $1 bills?

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quickthrowman 5 hours ago | parent [-]

A tariff is included in the cost of a product by the final seller. The final buyer ultimately pays the tariff.

It doesn’t matter who sends the actual tariff payment, it gets priced into the cost of the product.

	▲	4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

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vkou 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> then I would expect to see a notation on the price tags and a line-item on my receipts,

Trump started threatening anyone who was going to do that, because he doesn't want his face attached to price hikes.

▲ Windchaser 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The cost of the item that the end user pays should reflect all costs associated with production and distribution to that end user.

Eh, standard business school logic these days is that if you want to maximize profits, you should charge what the market will bear, not your costs + some fixed profit.

So if you're already charging what the market will bear, there may be more wiggle room to absorb some of the hit of tariffs, so long as it still leaves you making enough profit or in a favorable position. It still comes down to what maximizes tariffs: at higher prices, demand drops, but at lower prices, your profit/item drops.

Still, yeah, from what I understand, the bulk of the tariff costs were passed along to customers.

	▲	tombert 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sure, there might be some wiggle room in some of the margins, and when tariffs were like 10% that might have been something close to “sustainable”, but that doesn’t extrapolate forever. When Trump enacted 125% tariffs on China, they by definition couldn’t eat the cost.

▲ furyofantares 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I have no idea how the fuck the rumor that these tariffs will be “paid by other countries” started.

It's what POTUS was saying since day 1. That we've been getting ripped off and we're gonna make the other countries pay us etc etc etc.

It is, as I said in the post, obviously wrong - but that's where it comes from.

	▲	whattheheckheck an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Well its completely wrong. Tariffs are regressive consumer taxes that hurt people who make <$200k/year the most while enriching the inner circle of crony capitalism. Corrupt and should be prosecuted for such criminal robbery of the American people

▲ dboreham 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It wasn't a "rumor" it was explicit deliberate disinformation. Unfortunately many people in the US have insufficient education and accurate news feeds to realize.

See also: disinformation that "other countries charge us the same tariffs", which turns out to be either a plain lie, or they mean VAT (a sales tax, like we have in the US).

	▲	DonaldFisk 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Here's Trump's claims debunked in detail: https://www.factcheck.org/2025/08/recapping-trumps-deceptive... "But we found that Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” tariff rates weren’t based on tariffs that other countries charged on goods coming from the U.S. Instead, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative came up with the rates by dividing the size of a country’s trade imbalance with the U.S. in goods by how much America imports in goods from that nation. "