from websters:
Tariff
TAR’IF, noun
1. Properly, a list or table of goods with the duties or customs to be paid for the same, either on importation or exportation, whether such duties are imposed by the government of a country, or agreed on by the princes or governments of two countries holding commerce with each other.
Importer
IMPO’RTER, noun He that imports; the merchant who, by himself or his agent, brings goods from another country or state.
Merchant
1. A man who traffics or carries on trade with foreign countries, or who exports and imports goods and sells them by wholesale.
ok FRiend, thanks for the clarification: given the above definitions for tariff, importer and merchant: if an importer of record is the “merchant.” i’m ok with the “importer of record” paying the tax, whether he’s an importer or exporter or both; whether he’s an agent of a foreign gov’t or a multinational co; whether he’s even a us citizen—because the importer of record is the “trafficker.”
i’m definitely not ok with an American retailer who is not the trader or trafficker paying the tax, which i think would be the case with the so called “border adjustment tax.” which i would call the “soak the American consumer tax act while adding zero risk to the trafficker and the foreign country whose products he’s trafficking” to our country.
also notice that the proper (just) goal and purpose of the tariff is imbedded in the defintion above, that of getting a fair treaty “agreed on by the princes or governments of two countries holding commerce with each other.”
In today’s economy, most of the time the retailer is the importer. Walmart is importing their the crap directly from China. Apple is manufacturing, importing and retailing iPhones. Best Buy is buying appliances from Haier in China. What’s the difference to you whether the tax is applied at the border as a tariff, or is applied via tax accounting? Does the consumer pay either way? Probably, and that is a rational reason to oppose all tariffs. But once you decide to follow a more protectionist/interventionist trade policy, a border adjustment is as reasonable a strategy as a tariff.