The Unbearable Burden Of Tariffs

They Are A Tax On Consumers… Not Other Countries

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Table of Contents

• They Are A Tax On Consumers… Not Other Countries

• How Tariffs (Don’t) Work

• A Historic Gold Announcement Is About To Rock Wall …

• Three Things To Know Before We Go…

U.S. companies are now expected to pay at least $1.2 trillion more in expenses this year than was anticipated on January 1… all because of tariffs.

That’s according to a recent white paper released by S&P Global. Goldman Sachs released similar research, which estimates that the consumer burden of tariffs is now 37%, but will increase to 55% by the end of 2025. Consumers are now paying more for less.

And it’s only just begun… In early February, President Donald Trump launched a trade war against America’s two closest allies, Canada and Mexico – then extended that trade war to countries around the world in his big Liberation Day April 2 announcement. With some tariff levels as high as 100%, and with his finger pointing at dozens of countries around the globe, share prices plunged. But the real damage that tariffs will cause is not just the destabilization of markets – it is the burden it will place on businesses and ultimately consumers. 

Just to be clear, a tariff is a tax on U.S. citizens. It is not paid by the country whose goods Trump targets. The tariffs are paid by the company that is importing those goods into the U.S. The company can then eat those new costs or pass them on to the end buyer. Increasingly, it seems, those costs are going to consumers.

The country where the goods are produced does not pay anything. The only repercussions to them – say, China or Canada – is that U.S. companies might eventually buy fewer goods from them.