This is an unexpected effect of the American presidential campaign. In the United States, Internet users have published videos viewed millions of times on the subject of customs duties. A theme that may seem dry, but which has been brought to the forefront by Donald Trump. The Republican, who won the vote on Tuesday, November 5, promised to reintroduce customs duties on all imports in the first weeks of his second term. The future American president not only wants to increase them by 10 to 20% on all products imported into the United States, but he intends to increase them by 60% on those coming from China. This project by Donald Trump, which is not unanimous among economists, also arouses strong criticism on TikTok.
An Internet user, who has an account with his wife (Alexis and Dean), followed by more than a million subscribers, posted several videos on customs duties. One of them has accumulated more than 6 million videos in just three days, with more than 700,000 likes. “Who pays these customs duties? Not the company”assures Dean, in a 3 minute 40 demonstration which begins with the example of products imported from China. “It is us, as importers of Chinese products, who pay these duties, not China. The most important thing people need to understand is that it is not the company that exports that pays these customs duties It is the company that imports these products, such as Costco for example. (an American distribution chain)who pays these rights“, continues the TikToker.
And the Internet user, who presents himself as a finance specialist, supports his demonstration with the example of a t-shirt, paid 10 dollars to a Chinese company and resold for 12 dollars on American soil. “If the price of the t-shirt comes to 12 dollars (with customs duties), you are not going to resell it at a loss. So, you increase the prices”he assures. A first video on customs duties, published in mid-October on the same account, had reached more than 5 million views.
Another Internet user, Walter Masterson, who presents himself as a “comedian” and who has 2.6 million subscribers, made a video to recall the effects of the increase in customs duties decided by the United States in 1930. “Twenty-five countries immediately increased tariffs on American products. This was one of the main triggers of the Great Depression”he believes, in reference to this gigantic economic crisis which has affected the entire world. The same TikToker then tried, in another video, to confront his opinion with supporters of Donald Trump.
These sequences on customs duties also have a strong audience on mainstream media, with more than 1.6 million views on a video published on the account of the continuous news channel MSNBC. In the comments, many Internet users subscribed to the criticisms made against the future president's project. Others, however, are convinced that these increases will result in certain industries being relocated to the United States, as Donald Trump promises.
