Essentially, after years of criticizing China and much of Europe for the way they handle imports and exports, these officials want to copy them.
.. This could lead to slightly higher prices in the United States for everything from Chilean grapes to iPhones to gasoline. But it could also provide a boost to companies and workers who make things in the United States and sell them abroad... The World Trade Organization, the global trade adjudicator, has allowed developing countries to impose far higher tariffs than industrialized countries, while they build up industries at home. China has been counted as a developing country... China and other countries, but not the United States, also charge a steep value-added tax, which is a kind of national sales tax on imports and home-produced goods alike. Exports are exempt from value-added taxes... Once value-added taxes and sales taxes are included in an international comparison, America’s taxes on imports are much lower than those of almost every other country.
An Analysis of Ted Cruz’s Tax Plan
The Tax Policy Center estimates that the proposal would reduce federal revenue by $8.6 trillion over its first decade and an additional $12.2 trillion over the subsequent 10 years, before accounting for added interest costs or considering macroeconomic feedback effects.1 Most of the revenue loss would stem from repealing payroll taxes ($12.2 trillion), cutting individual income taxes ($11.9 trillion), and eliminating the corporate income tax ($3.5 trillion). The VAT would raise $19.2 trillion over the decade, offsetting only 70 percent of the cost of the tax cuts
.. In 2017, the proposal would cut taxes at every income level, but high-income taxpayers would receive the biggest cuts, both in dollar terms and as a percentage of income. Overall, the plan would cut taxes by an average of about $6,100, or about 8.5 percent of after-tax income.
.. However, the highest-income 0.1 percent of taxpayers (those with incomes over $3.7 million in 2015 dollars) would experience an average tax cut of more than $2 million in 2017, nearly 29 percent of after-tax income. Households in the middle of the income distribution would receive an average tax cut of $1,800, or 3.2 percent of after-tax income, while taxpayers in the lowest quintile would receive an average tax cut of $46, or 0.4 percent of after-tax income.