>Wouldnt it be more fair to just charge VAT on the value that the importer is adding, rather than the entire value? I suppose they would if they could but its i

>Wouldnt it be more fair to just charge VAT on the value that the importer is adding, rather than the entire value? I suppose they would if they could but its impractical for international trade. They don't pay anything. They collect the tax paid by consumer which is N percent of the price. If N - 1 was already collected by previous parts of the chain, they only have to collect 1.