“Which countries actually paid the highest US tariffs — before the trade war?”
asked by Mrigank Singh · re-verified 2026-08-09
The number it created
In June 2017, before a single trade-war tariff, Cambodia’s goods paid 13.7% of their value at the US border. Vietnam paid 7.4%. China paid 2.7%. Germany paid 1.5%. The old schedule taxed apparel-and-footwear origins at roughly ten times the rate it taxed machinery-and-car origins.
What it does not say
It does not say the wall was designed to point at the poor — MFN rates are set by product, and poor countries export the high-MFN products. It also does not say this pattern survived: the trade war narrowed the gap by raising the top, not lowering the bottom.
· the full record
Using tariff_burden, compare the effective tariff burden (duty as % of all import value) for Cambodia, Vietnam, China, India, Japan and Germany in June 2017 versus the latest month. Which ranking inverted?
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“Which countries actually paid the highest US tariffs — before the trade war?”
In June 2017, before a single trade-war tariff, Cambodia’s goods paid 13.7% of their value at the US border. Vietnam paid 7.4%. China paid 2.7%. Germany paid 1.5%. The old schedule taxed apparel-and-footwear origins at roughly ten times the rate it taxed machinery-and-car origins.
It does not say the wall was designed to point at the poor — MFN rates are set by product, and poor countries export the high-MFN products. It also does not say this pattern survived: the trade war narrowed the gap by raising the top, not lowering the bottom.
I asked the Trimtab US Trade Ledger — open, no key, no account. Ask it something we
haven’t: https://trimtabist.com/asked/tariff-wall-before-the-war
(via Mrigank Singh — engagement 13 on the board) #Trimtabist