Tariffs. who pays? Surprise! YOU DO.
Very interesting article in the Atlantic about the effects the tariffs are having, on one farmer in particular in New York, who was surprised to learn that HE was responsible for paying the tariff, not his Canadian supplier.
I am sorry that people like this farmer are getting caught up in this insanity, but I hope everybody quickly realizes who pays tariffs. It’s not the foreign supplier. It’s the American purchaser.
Excerpt -
Last month , Nicholas Gilbert received a delivery of grain for the 1,400 cows he tends at his dairy farm in Potsdam, New York, 20 miles from the Ontario border. The feed came with a surprise tariff of $2,200 tacked on.
“We have small margins,” he told me. “I had a contracted price on that grain delivered to my barn. It was supposed to be so much per ton. And they added that tariff right on top because it comes from a Canadian feed mill.”
Gilbert cannot increase the price of the milk he sells, which is set by the local co-op. He cannot feed his cows less food. He cannot buy feed from another supplier; there aren’t any nearby, and getting it from farther away would be more expensive.
When he got the delivery, he stared at the tariff for a while. Shouldn’t his Canadian supplier have been responsible for paying it?
“I’m not even sure it’s legal! We contracted for the price on delivery! If your price of fuel goes up or your truck breaks down, that’s not my problem! That’s what the contract’s for.”
But the tariff was legal, and it was Gilbert’s responsibility.