“So China is now paying us billions of dollars in tariffs.”

This is the Trump economist in 2018, as quoted in Coy (2018). Now from USITC “Economic Impact of Sections 232 and 301 Tariffs on U.S. Industry” (p. 22), controversial assessment.

The Commission’s econometric model estimates that the tariffs under sections 232 and 301 resulted in a nearly one-to-one increase in the price of U.S. imports after the introduction of the tariffs. This means that the 10 percent ad valorem tariff raised the price of US imports from China by about 10 percent. This almost complete pass-through (meaning that the prices received by exporters remained virtually unchanged and the prices paid by US importers rose by the same amount as the tariffs) is unusual, but has been similarly found in other recent studies that do the conclusion that US importers suffered losses. almost full burden of section 301 tariffs.

Here is an example of tariff transfers to steel prices.

Source: US ITC (2023).

Tariff pass-through estimates are fairly close to one, ie a 25 percent ad valorem tariff results in essentially a 25 percent price increase for domestic consumers (broadly speaking). It means that We pay tariffs No Chinese, in these two cases.

So, in case you haven’t been paying attention, the US seems like a small country when it comes to the steel and aluminum markets (see Econbrowser posts). [1], [2], [3]– so against Mister. Commentary by Bruce Hall).