President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he is hurting the Chinese with his tariffs. Last quarter was the biggest trade deficit with China possibly ever. Companies have pre-bought Chinese products in case Trump won’t back down on his promised raises in the tariffs. He has made it him against the Chinese government and they can’t back down so the Chinese will go to their closet of retaliations.

He has said the billions in tariffs are going into the U.S. Treasury. That is true! The money isn’t paid by the Chinese but by the American Companies purchasing the items. Companies don’t eat that money they paid to import the item, so they pass along the tariff money to the consumer–the American consumer. We, the American consumer will pay this back door tax, wiping out any minimal tax we may have gotten. The steel and aluminum tariffs cost GM $1.4 billion, not China.

The Chinese have put tariffs on many exports to China. Farmers have been especially hit hard. Soybeans have been hit hardest. Corn, wheat, other grains, pork, beef, turkeys, and chicken prices have dropped–Good for consumers, bad for farm communities, farmers, and businesses.  The U.S. Government is going to partly subsidize the soybeans and to a smaller amount the corn farmers, and others. The Agriculture Department just released the meat in storage numbers. They are the largest in years or ever depending on who read the release and their research. When the freezers burst our costs at stores will plummet and so will the price farmers get.

The President thinks in a time span of days and maybe weeks when he destroys markets that were carefully nurtured. China can buy products elsewhere and leave us out for years. Many industries are worried if China will come back.