
Trump Plans 20% Tax on Mexican Imports to Pay for Border Wall - el_benhameen
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/us/politics/mexico-wall-tax-trump.html
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pivo
Doesn't that mean that US citizens will actually end up paying for the wall
through higher prices on these goods?

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ZeroGravitas
Apparently 40% of every Mexican import is American made due to the tight
integration of supply chains that NAFTA made possible, so not only do the US
consumers pay higher prices, but they'll be buying alternatives that may have
less American made content and reducing domestic demand.

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elmerfud
That's not really Mexico paying for it. Market pressures already keep prices
low, therefore this is unlikely to come out of the profit side of the goods.
Instead it will be passed along as higher prices to the consumer, or the goods
will be sourced elsewhere.

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el_benhameen
It's unclear to me how this doesn't functionally mean "Trump plans 20% VAT to
pay for border wall". Why would Mexican manufacturers _not_ pass the tax on to
consumers unless there's a competing product from another country?

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artur_makly
[https://twitter.com/ArturMakly/status/824739661658611718](https://twitter.com/ArturMakly/status/824739661658611718)

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ZeroGravitas
This fake tweet sounds scarily close to something Trump's economic adviser
actualy said:

 _" Peter Navarro, who leads the White House National Trade Council, said
during the campaign that tariffs would not cost U.S. jobs.

"The tariff is not an end game, it's a strategy -- a strategy to renegotiate
trade deals," Navarro told CNNMoney during the campaign. "Tariffs wouldn't put
U.S. jobs at risk.""_

So, US jobs would not be at risk, they'll just pretend to put them at risk to
scare the Mexicans. And then they'll announce that strategy to the press in
advance.

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sharemywin
and the trade war begins.

