[central_va]

The end of welfare income taxes as we know it rests in the ability of government to raise taxes tariffs.

Fixed.

[Will88]

There are so many details involved in trade relationships that it's hard for anyone to gain a good understanding of the total picture.

Did you check this link out?

Duty Calculator - Country Guides

It looks like German puts the 19% VAT tax on most all imports, plus other duties on other items. That assesses imports with a tax domestic German companies incur as value is added in the manufacturing process. I guess we could calculate labor and environmental costs our domestic producers have which are not incurred in cheap labor nations and call it a Comparable Labor and Environmental Tax, the CLE tax on imports, then we wouldn't have any tariffs on imports, just as Germany doesn't.

I think most or all the EU assess the VAT on imports from outside the EU. Someone really needs to put all these trade disadvantages the US must deal with in a form people could grasp. Or maybe they don't want it so people understand what's really going on.