World Trade Atlas

How tariffs
reach you

A tariff is charged at a border you will probably never stand at, on a shipment you will never see. This page follows it the rest of the way — to the price you actually pay.

Read this before you trust any number below

This is a scenario tool, not an oracle. It does not know today's tariff on your shoes. What it does is let you set a rate and a pass-through assumption and see the arithmetic — then hand you the primary documents so you can find the real figure yourself.

The starting rates below are MFN base rates from the US tariff schedule: the standing rate before any trade deal, and before any recent measure. They are stable and checkable. Additional measures change often — that is what the source links are for.

1

Build your basket

Click what you actually buy, then set roughly what you spend on it in a year. The badge shows the MFN base rate — notice how much it varies, and how many things you assumed were taxed are not.

2

Set your assumptions

Recent measures — Section 301, Section 232 and others — stack on top of the base rate. Set this to model a scenario, then check the real figure in the documents linked below each item.

The importer pays the duty. How much of it lands on you depends on who absorbs it. Studies of the 2018–19 US tariffs found pass-through to consumers was high — often near complete, but it varies by product and by how competitive the market is. 100% means you pay all of it; 0% means the seller eats it entirely.

Your estimated extra cost
$0
a year, on the basket you selected
3

Where it comes from — and the documents behind it

4

Search by country

Pick a country that makes something in your basket. You will get its own average tariff, the four ways that average can be calculated, and live news coverage of tariffs involving it.

5

What did you find?

Write in your own words. Your answers save to this browser as you type, and travel with every export below.

6

Take it with you

Everything on this page — your basket, your assumptions, your figures, your sources and your writing — in one document.

PDF opens your browser's print dialogue — choose "Save as PDF" as the destination. Nothing you write here is uploaded anywhere; it stays in this browser until you export it.

Credits, sources and disclosure