President Trump proposed a 20 percent tariff on imports from Mexico in order to pay for the wall he plans to build on the southern border. It is assumed that the 20 percent tariff is a negotiating starting point. A tariff is a tax on imports which will make a product more expensive and favor domestically produced goods over imports, while raising revenue for the government of our country.
Tariffs were a major government revenue source during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but today we are a low tariff country, with a few exceptions. Other countries protect their domestic industries by charging heavy tariffs and some as much as 100 percent.
