European Central Bank: U.S. consumers and importers have become the biggest victims of tariffs

An economic bulletin article published by the European Central Bank on Monday said that the vast majority of the economic losses caused by tariffs are borne by U.S. consumers and importers, while trade volumes are also hit, resulting in negative effects for exporters.

Last year, the U.S. imposed a range of tariffs on most of its trading partners, and after the Trump administration claimed that exporters would pay the price, economists have been debating who would bear the biggest loss.

The ECB’s research said: “U.S.-exporting firms only shoulder a small portion of the costs brought by the tariff increases; most of the costs are passed on to U.S. domestic importers and consumers.”

The ECB said that, at present, U.S. consumers bear about one-third of the tariff costs; in the long run, as U.S. businesses run out of capacity to absorb these costs, that share could rise to more than half.

The article added that this means U.S. businesses will absorb about 40% of the tariff-increase costs over the long term.

But the ECB also pointed out that European exporters cannot escape either, because the estimated impact of tariffs on import volumes is highly significant.

The study said that in product categories that are still subject to tariffs, for every additional 10% increase in tariffs, import volumes would fall by 4.3%.

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责任编辑：郭明煜