About That Japan Deal

choi

Paul Jrugman, About That Japan Deal, July 23, 2025 (blog)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/about-that-japan-deal
("Some people have looked at the relatively muted effect of tariffs on [America's] consumer prices so far * * * If foreigners were eating the tariffs, we'd expect to see a large decline in the prices America is paying for imports. And the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statics, US Department of Labor] does, in fact, measure import prices; its index specifically does not include tariffs")

My comment: I do not understand the third point. Cross that. Clcik the hyperkink in the quotation, you will see a graph from 2005 to 2025, every other year in between (all year displaying June ONLY). Unknowst to me at first, I learn that I can click individual line segment above the graph that are colored differently. Once you click "nonfuel import," you will see not much difference between 2005 and 2025 (though the figure in this blog says slight increase). Brcause these nonfuel import prices (by BLS) do not include tariff, so the real non-fuel import prices, after tariff, should be high (because foreign exporters are NOT eating tariffs; if they had eaten tariffs, the nonfuel import prices would have decreased), but domestic consumer prices in the United States have not increased. Krugman surmises that so far, nobody (Americans or foreigners) are eating tariffs, because American importers must have imported enough to stock up in advance.