Before I get into all that, we need to agree on a fundamental understanding of tariff collection.
I posed this to you on another thread and you gave a flip answer. Let me try again.
Maybe you have a diamond ring on your hand. It was mined in South Africa and sold to a New York diamond merchant who cut and sold it to someone who sold it to you.
The U.S. Government charges an import tax on the diamond, maybe 15%. Who paid that tariff?
Yeah you tried it. Didn't make sense then, doesn't make sense now. But the short answer is that at the end of the day the consumer pays the 15% through a markup on the item sold. But why was it sold to a New York diamond merchant? Because that's where the demand is. That's where the importer is who buys the raw material and makes the ring. He then sells it into his supply chain. But for William's scenario to be true and your scenarion to make the point you want to make, we would have to live in a world where 75% of the diamond merchants live and work in Charleston and the diamond is still imported through New York where it is landed, taxed, and then sent to Charleston for delivery to the diamond merchant.