President Trump sent a boastful tweet on 1/3/2019:
The United States Treasury has taken in MANY billions of dollars from the Tariffs we are charging China and other countries that have not treated us fairly...
Actually the seasonally adjusted Federal Customs Receipts are now running about $5 billion per month. This is by far the highest amount for as far back as I can see. In 2002 the Federal Customs Receipts were less than $2 billion per month. During 2018 the monthly take from tariffs increased from $3 billion the most recent $5 billion.
Does Donald Trump believe that China is being charged? Or is he spinning a deceptive version of events?
I understand that Anti-Dumping and Countervailing duties, as well as any general or special tariffs are all paid by the importer. (Think "Wal-Mart", "Amazon", "Dell", "KitchenAid", "Whirlpool", etc.) The importer pays the estimated duties by a cash deposit at the time the goods enter the United States. Then Customs and Border Protection assesses a final amount due and will accordingly send the importer either a bill or a refund.
Initially the importer pays, and ultimately (if sales go according to plan) the importer passes the costs of customs duties along to American consumers.