Today in the United states, the prices increase is subject to a ratchet effect: prices keep rising and never fall. Tariffs have accelerated this phenomenon for consumers. Businesses have begun to receive refunds for the tariffs deemed illegal that the admininistration had collected. They will also be reimbursed, in the next year, for the 10% tariff that replaced them, which was also deemed illegal.
But these tariffs have already been factored into the prices of goods sold on the American market since the « Liberation » day (just one year, this shitty era passes so slowly). They represent 1% of GDP. Businesses are being reimbursed, but will they lower their prices by that amount? I sincerely doubt it : it’s the ratchet effect, always rising up.
Customs duties are taxes on American consumers that used to benefit the government, but now generate inflation while benefiting businesses. Is it a scam or a conspiracy ? No, just economic disorganization by a bunch of incompetents, each more hopeless at mathematics than the last.