There's a lot of confusion about tariffs like who pays them and the effect on the economy. I'm here to set the record straight. The single most important part of this whole ordeal is to understand THE CONSUMER DOES NOT PAY THE TARIFF. Let me say it again, "We, the consumer, the buyer, do not pay the government (ours) the tariff fee."

With that out of the way, what is a tariff and who pays it? In short, a tariff is a fee paid to the receiving nation's (buyers) government paid by either the importer (BBTS) or the exporter (Bing Chang Toys). Who pays the fee? (let's say 20% tariff) It depends on the contract.

Bing Chang toys may go, "Wow look at all those Americans buying figures! We need to get in on that market!" and they'd sign a contract to pay Customs (our government) a 20% tariff fee in order to sell their product to us. This is the optimal outcome the current administration is looking for. The Selling Country of origin pays the tariffs for the privilege of selling their goods to our nation.

Alternately BBTS could go, "Wow that's a cool toy line! I wish we could sell that line to our customers!" and sign a contract where they would pay Customs the 20% fee to import those figures and offer them to us. BBTS would absorb some of the tariff and they would raise the price a bit, passing some of the tariff fee on to the end consumer, us. This is not optimal as China isn't paying anything to our govt, BBTS is.

Now, what if USA company Average Joe Furniture wants to sell a chair to someone in China? All he has to do is pay China their 20% tariff fee, or find a Chinese buyer willing to pay the fee and import his chairs right? No, because China imposes a 200% tariff fee. Joe can't afford to pay that and no Chinese seller will absorb the fee. So the Chinese buyers will just have sit on Chinese chairs. Made in China, sold to China.