55% of the U.S. population didn’t know what tariffs were: now Americans are finding out the hard way
Trump sold Americans on the idea that tariffs would be paid by foreign nations. Those that didn’t know better are waking up to reality.
Voters returned Donald Trump to the White House, after a four-year hiatus, on his message that he would fix the economy on “Day One.” However, after getting a post-election boost , consumer sentiment on the economy is significantly lower a year later.
Nearly half of Americans have a negative view of the Republicans’ tax and budget law that was passed in July according to a Pew Research survey, compared to only about a third who approve of it. Even more are against Trump’s tariffs with over 6 out of ten disapproving of them.
Many over the past year have woken up to the harsh reality of what tariffs really are. Only 45% of Americans correctly answered the question from an Ipsos survey on how tariffs work responding that “tariffs are taxes imposed by a country on goods and services imported from another country, paid by the importer, often leading to higher prices for consumers.”
Americans are finding out the hard way what tariffs are
Trump’s policy on tariffs in his second term has been chaotic since ‘Liberation Day’ on 2 April when he announced a worldwide salvo of “reciprocal tariffs”. Markets forced him to postpone implementation and make some corrections, but nearly all imported goods are facing higher taxes upon entry into the US.
This has helped stoke inflation up again after it had been falling. Trump relented on some household staples that the US simply cannot produce itself like bananas and coffee after affordability issues gave voter gave the GOP a shellacking in November’s elections.
There is no current survey to see if Americans’ knowledge of the definition of a tariff has improved, but they are definitely aware of their effects. Most Americans are seeing the price increases at the supermarket, and are blaming it on tariffs.
Others are seeing exactly how much tariffs are raising the cost on specific products, getting sticker shock when receiving products they bought online.
Small dollar imports slapped with outsized US duty fees
As of 2 May, goods shipped from China valued $800 or less were longer exempt from US duties under the de minimis exemption. The same thing happened to goods shipped from anywhere else in the world to the US starting 24 August.
Without that exemption, people who purchased products online from suppliers outside the US have been hit with astronomical fees to get their package from the delivery companies, which pay the duty when they receive the goods if the company shipping them hasn’t already. The New York Times recently highlighted a couple of examples.
In one case, Kim Batten bought a $456 trench coat from a Dutch retailer in July. At the time, goods from the Netherlands faced a 15% tariff, but she had to paid $250 in duty fees. That’s because the coat was made by a Chinese company whose goods face far higher tariffs.
Another example was Claudia Scholtz, who bought some wooden leg extensions for her loom from a Canadian company, which sourced them from the Netherlands. They cost $158.36, but she had to pay another $333.50 to UPS to cover the duty fees.
“I would be very careful not to choose a product that is not shipped within the U.S.,” she told the paper.
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