Despite claims by the Trump administration, a new study has found that Americans are absorbing about 96% of the costs of President Donald Trump's tariffs. Foreign companies have been paying only 4% through discounts and other tactics. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy study, obtained by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, concluded that the tariffs were likely to show up as higher consumer prices in the long term. "There is no such thing as foreigners transferring wealth to the U.S. in the form of tariffs," Bielefeld University professor Julian Hinz remarked after authoring the study.
According to Hinz, the $200 billion in tariff revenue last year "was paid almost exclusively by Americans."
The report found that the tariffs functioned as a consumption tax on Americans instead of a tax on foreign companies.