FAQS

Tariffs are an added tax on any good or service that is imported from a foreign country. Sometimes called levies or duties, tariffs raise the price of a product in the nation that collects the tariff. The goal of a tariff is twofold—one, to increase the revenue of the government and two, to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. The idea is that the added tax discourages the importation of foreign goods, punishing the foreign entity, and reducing competition from the foreign companies. However, in practice tariffs do not necessarily have this affect. The current tariffs on imported materials from China to the United States are having a negative impact on the field of metrology. Companies that produce different precision measurement tools and devices rely on imported materials and goods from China and so must take on this additional cost in order to keep supplying these products. Since we in this field rely on imported parts, these tariffs on Chinese materials leave us at a disadvantage and make other countries products better in the price competition.