I feel the greatest trick of American politicians is that the term “tariff” tends to be used by most people instead of “import tax”.

I live in South Africa and we have significant import taxes on certain kinds of items, but nobody (aside perhaps from economists/accountants/tax practitioners, etc) calls them tariffs.

It’s not the overseas seller who pays extra for the item to be imported, it’s the importer, paid to the tax man. It’s a tax paid on imports. That cost is ultimately passed on to end buyers, such as myself. Why would I generally refer to it as a tariff except for reasons of pedantry?