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If the products produced by US companies inside the US are going to be taxed at 35%, it is only fair to levy a stiff tax on imports to level the playing field.

Are you talking about the U.S. corporate income tax? If so, foreign companies pay it for any activity in which they engage in the U.S. (unless there is a specific tax treaty).

So that playing-field is already level. The uneven playing field is created by the U.S. Treasury taxing U.S. companies for their operations overseas, which creates the incentive for them to move away (and creating free-standing foreign subsidiaries).

“So that playing-field is already level.”

I disagree the playing field is level. If a Chinese factory pays an effective tax rate to the Chinese government of 15%, which is then rebated to the factory on exported goods, the factory pays 0% tax to its home government on the goods it exports. All of the profit is returned to shareholders or available for reinvestment in the firm.

If a US factory competing with the Chinese factory pays an effective tax rate of 35% to the federal government, and 8-10% to the state government, it is not on a level playing field from the perspective of taxation.

When the Macy’s or Walmart buyer visits the US factory and compares its price on comparable products to the Chinese factory’s price, the US factory has a huge cost disadvantage due to the differences in tax policies. Remember, most US companies today are buying directly from overseas factories, not middlemen. The economic comparison the buyers make is factory to factory.

The example above is very real and demonstrates how the playing field is not level. In addition the US taxpayer pays for the US Navy which keeps the worlds shipping lanes open, pays for the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the harbors for the merchant ships to bring the goods to US ports, pays for the Customs inspectors in US ports, pays for the FAA and much of the capital infrastructure costs of US airports receiving air cargo from overseas, and pays for the US Coast Guard. To level the economic playing field, duties and fees should be assessed on every container brought into the US to help cover the costs of these services. To not charge for these services is to give the foreign factory a free ride. The US exporter pays for these services when it pays its taxes to the US government.

In the absence of tariffs, foreign factories are subsidized by the US taxpayer and in many instances are subsidized by their own governments. To perpetuate this practice by not assessing duties and tariffs is to sustain an economic policy favoring foreign factories at the expense of US factories.

. . . Are you talking about the U.S. corporate income tax? If so, foreign companies pay it for any activity in which they engage in the U.S. (unless there is a specific tax treaty).. . .

FYI, corporations foreign and domestic, have proved quite creative in avoiding corporate income taxes.

The Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.
. . .
The GAO said corporations escaped paying federal income taxes for a variety of reasons including operating losses, tax credits and an ability to use transactions within the company to shift income to low tax countries.
. .
The study showed about 28 percent of large foreign corporations, those with more than $250 million in assets, doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes in 2005 despite $372 billion in gross receipts, . . . .. About 25 percent of the largest U.S. companies paid no federal income taxes in 2005 despite $1.1 trillion in gross sales that year, they said.