Who is paying for tariffs?

Tariff has become one of the hottest topics at the moment since the US president, Donald Trump, decided to lower the US trade deficits. Tariff is a way to lower trade deficits, but it does not work exactly like what it is like in the president’s tweets. The US president’s tweets often give us such impression about tariff that China is paying money to the US government when the Chinese companies export certain products to the US. This impression inaccurately explains how tariff works. Tariffs lower trade deficits by making foreign products more expensive, so the domestic consumers will be less willing to pay foreign products comparing with domestic products. When people consume fewer imported goods and services, the trade deficit will be lowered. Then although tariff is hurting the Chinese exporters significantly due to the weaker demand, it seems that the domestic consumers are paying for tariffs, as they determine the demands for imported goods and the companies are very likely to transfer the increased costs caused by the tariffs to their consumers.