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Comment by lazyeye | Hacker News Reader

And if you read a previous comment it effectively means imported goods are taxed twice. Both in their country of manufacture and then again in the country where they are sold. It makes sense to tax local companies with a VAT tax to fund their local govt/infrastructure. But imports are get nothing for that tax. If you are a European exporter and there is no tariff/tax in your export destination then you only get taxed once.

And thats why "where the fuck you produced it" matters.

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But those taxes serve different purposes? On fuel we have VAT (for commerce) and also other taxes (for road maintenance).

Get yourself a good transatlantic deal to get rid if import taxes (and stick to it)

Huh...it's just a financial penalty imposed on the manufacturer that goes to the govt. Whatever labels/reasons you want to assign it is completely irrelevant.

"Both in their country of manufacture and then again in the country where they are sold"

What US taxes are you talking about that the EU does not have?

The only thing you have shown so far is that things in the EU are more expensive than the US. Which is not really a big secret.

The problem is in the US, not in the EU. The US is in effect applying an "export" tax.

So for example, if both sides each have a 2% import tax. Then it would be unfair because a 20% VAT would increase that import tax to 2.2%?

Not sure what point you are making. Are you suggesting that VAT is a tax on the tax component only?

Most US state sales taxes also apply to imported products so should othe countries consider that a tariff as well?

I think Trump is advocating for reciprocity so yes if they want to then of course. Ultimately the objective is to to remove trade tariffs/taxes completely but that's not going to happen till there is an incentive for countries to come to the table.

VAT is not a tarrif or trade tax it is simply appling a consumption tax to all goods foreign and domestic.

See my original point.

Other countries are not going to let the USA determine domestic tax policies.

If they did remove VAT from items imported from the United States it would lead to the absurd situation where a US merchant could import an item from Germany without VAT and then sell it to consumers in Germany without VAT undercutting German retailers and denying the German government their consumption tax revenue

No problem. In that case the US can restore balance in the trade relationship with tariffs.

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