This means that US keeps paying the old WTO MFN tariffs (low) while EU keeps paying the high ~15% tariffs like it has since the July “deal”.
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The importer pay the tariff, unless it changed in the last two hundred years?
Tariffs are paid by importers, but the cost is usually shared between:
- Foreign producers
- Domestic consumers
- Domestic companies (via lower profits)
Who pays more depends on bargaining power and market structure.
_In practice_, at least for these sort of broad-based tariffs, it tends to be the consumer, eg https://www.kielinstitut.de/publications/news/americas-own-g...
So ultimately the EU doesn't pay the tariff, companies do.
I believe kindness hasn’t changed in the last 200 years - try it.
You are correct that importers pay tariffs on paper but that doesn’t always mean the tariffs are paid by the importers in real terms. Exporters may not want to change prices for competitiveness to local goods so in the end regardless of the actual invoice, the exporter is paying for those tariffs. You can find multiple exporters talking about absorbing those costs. I
While there are niches where this can happen, in practice the consumer generally pays. If nothing else, most companies who produce export goods simply do not have the margins to absorb a 15% cost. What boring manufacturing industry has 15% net margins?