VAT is a sales tax not a duty/tariff - this is due by you as a consumer not the importer were a company to purchase it for resale. If you bought the same goods

VAT is a sales tax not a duty/tariff - this is due by you as a consumer not the importer were a company to purchase it for resale. If you bought the same goods from a local seller you'd have the same VAT. EU has some exceptions on goods from the EU (in the form of IOSS/de minimis) but by and large the VAT operates like a sales tax which many US states also have (as do Canadian Provinces and AU residents). For sake of comparison, they are not usually conflated with import/tariff/duties.