Tariffs are in the news at the moment. HereSA国际影视传媒檚 what they are and what you need to know about them:

Tariffs are a tax on imports

Tariffs are typically charged as a percentage of the price a buyer pays a foreign seller. In the United States, by Customs and Border Protection agents at 328 ports of entry across the country.

U.S. tariff rates vary: They are generally 2.5 per cent on passenger cars, for instance, and six per cent on golf shoes. Tariffs can be lower for countries with which the United States has trade agreements. For example, most goods can move among the tariff-free because of TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Mainstream economists are generally skeptical of tariffs, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.

ThereSA国际影视传媒檚 much misinformation about who actually pays tariffs

President Donald Trump, , insists that they are paid for by foreign countries. In fact, its is importers SA国际影视传媒� American companies SA国际影视传媒� that pay tariffs, and the money goes to the U.S. Treasury. Those companies, in turn, typically pass their higher costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices. ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 why economists say consumers usually end up footing the bill for tariffs.

Still, tariffs can hurt foreign countries by making their products pricier and harder to sell abroad. Foreign companies might have to cut prices SA国际影视传媒� and sacrifice profits SA国际影视传媒� to offset the tariffs and try to maintain their market share in the United States. Yang Zhou, an economist at ShanghaiSA国际影视传媒檚 Fudan University, concluded in a study that TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 tariffs on Chinese goods inflicted more than three times as much damage to the Chinese economy as they did to the U.S. economy.

SA国际影视传媒楪reatest thingSA国际影视传媒�

What has Trump said about tariffs?

Trump has said tariffs will create more factory jobs, shrink the federal deficit, lower food prices and allow the government to subsidize childcare.

SA国际影视传媒淭ariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,SA国际影视传媒橲A国际影视传媒� Trump said at a rally in Flint, Michigan, during his presidential campaign.

As president, Trump imposed tariffs with a flourish SA国际影视传媒� targeting imported solar panels, steel, aluminum and pretty much everything from China.

SA国际影视传媒淭ariff Man,SA国际影视传媒� he called himself.

Trump has promised even more and higher tariffs in his second term.

The United States in recent years has gradually retreated from its post-World War II role of promoting global free trade and lower tariffs. That shift has been a response to the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, widely attributed to unfettered tree trade and an increasingly powerful China.

Tariffs are intended mainly to protect domestic industries

By raising the price of imports, tariffs can protect home-grown manufacturers. They may also serve to punish foreign countries for committing unfair trade practices, like subsidizing their exporters or dumping products at unfairly low prices.

Fell out of favour

Before the federal income tax was established in 1913, tariffs were a major revenue driver for the government. From 1790 to 1860, tariffs accounted for 90 per cent of federal revenue, according to Douglas Irwin, a Dartmouth College economist who has studied the history of trade policy.

Tariffs fell out of favour as global trade grew after World War II. The government needed vastly bigger revenue streams to finance its operations.

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the government collected around $80 billion in tariffs and fees. ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 a trifle next to the $2.5 trillion that comes from individual income taxes and the $1.7 trillion from Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Still, Trump wants to enact a budget policy that resembles what was in place in the 19th century.

Tariffs can also be used to pressure other countries on issues that . In 2019, for example, Trump used the threat of tariffs as leverage to persuade Mexico to crack down on waves of Central American migrants crossing Mexican territory on their way to the United States.

Trump even sees tariffs as a way to prevent wars.

SA国际影视传媒淚 can do it with a phone call,SA国际影视传媒橲A国际影视传媒� he said at an August rally in North Carolina.

If another country tries to start a war, he said heSA国际影视传媒檇 issue a threat:

SA国际影视传媒淲eSA国际影视传媒檙e going to charge you 100 per cent tariffs. And all of a sudden, the president or prime minister or dictator or whoever the hell is running the country says to me, SA国际影视传媒楽ir, we wonSA国际影视传媒檛 go to war.SA国际影视传媒� SA国际影视传媒�

Retaliation

Tariffs raise costs for companies and consumers that rely on imports. TheySA国际影视传媒檙e also likely to provoke retaliation.

, for example, punched back against TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 tariffs on steel and aluminum by taxing U.S. products, from bourbon to Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Likewise, China responded to TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 trade war by slapping tariffs on American goods, including soybeans and pork in a calculated drive to hurt his supporters in farm country.

A study by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Zurich, Harvard and the World Bank concluded that TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 tariffs failed to restore jobs to the American heartland. The tariffs SA国际影视传媒渘either raised nor lowered U.S. employmentSA国际影视传媒橲A国际影视传媒� where they were supposed to protect jobs, the study found.

Despite TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 2018 taxes on imported steel, for example, the number of jobs at U.S. steel plants barely budged: They remained right around 140,000. By comparison, Walmart alone employs 1.6 million people in the United States.

Worse, the retaliatory taxes imposed by China and other nations on U.S. goods had SA国际影视传媒渘egative employment impacts,SA国际影视传媒橲A国际影视传媒� especially for farmers, the study found. These retaliatory tariffs were only partly offset by billions in government aid that Trump doled out to farmers. The Trump tariffs also damaged companies that relied on targeted imports.

If TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 trade war fizzled as policy, though, it succeeded as politics. The study found that support for Trump and Republican congressional candidates rose in areas most exposed to the import tariffs SA国际影视传媒� the industrial Midwest and manufacturing-heavy Southern states like North Carolina and Tennessee.

SA国际影视传媒擝y Paul Wiseman, The Associated Press