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Customs Duties
About This Indicator
What Are Customs Duties?
Tariffs, the taxes paid on imports, as collected at the border, in billions of dollars at an annual rate, from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Why Does It Matter?
Before the modern income tax began in 1913, tariffs were a pillar of federal finance: as late as 1910 they brought in about half of all federal revenue. Importers pay at the border, and can pass the cost on in higher prices to the American businesses and shoppers who buy from them.
Can Politics Influence Them?
More directly than almost anything else here: Congress sets the rates, or the President does under delegated powers, and a new rate shows up in collections within months.
Key Idea
Collections depend on how much comes in as well as on the rate: the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 raised rates, yet collections fell by more than half by 1932 as imports collapsed. A duty high enough to stop an import entirely would collect nothing, so revenue and protection pull against each other.
Not Scored
Source: BEA. NIPA Table 3.2 (B235RC).
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