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Comment by aucisson_masque | Hacker News Reader

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aucisson_masque·

That's what I wonder too.

Ultimately it's the customer who paid more for his his'goods, not the importer.

Is the us government seriously going to give American citizens money to some Chinese importers ?

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Plenty of companies didn't change their prices and ate the tariffs.

Right, this is what I remember seeing. Overall, inflation didn't increase much last year even after the tariffs because a lot of companies had stockpiled inventory and were able to postpone the price increase. Seems like that bet paid off, and now they should ideally be able to get their money back without increasing prices.

Obviously there were some companies who did raise prices because of tariffs, but I'm saying that on average, they must not have since inflation didn't go up by 15%

Can you name any? Everything I purchased went up in a price, even if some of the better ones tried to hold out for a couple months.

Scenario: A company's costs increased because of both the tarriff and some other factors (perhaps a supplier increased their prices, and the staff unionized and negotiated a salary increase, all around the same time). They probably would have eaten the cost if it was just the tarriff (who can say?), but because the total increase from all factors. was too much, they decided three months later to increase their prices to partially offset the combined loss of revenue. They then discover that sales did not drop from the increased price, so they decide to leave the prices where they are, even after the tarriffs end.

How much of the cost increase is 'because' of the tarriff? Which of their customers should they be forced to refund and how much?

I understand that businesses are trying to say it is impossible to calculate because they do not want to give consumers refunds.

I specifically asked for any business that did not increase prices.

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