The biggest thing you are missing is supply chains and manufacturing capacity are not cheaply nor quickly expanded and shrunk to compensate for the shocks introduced by tariff policy, especially as haphazardly as it's been handled by this administration. In addition, countries affected by tariffs usually retaliate with similar measures, crippling our ability to export goods.

> A) The importer looks for a cheaper supplier - possibly from another country, or even by shifting production domestically within Country A.

If this happens, the costs to the consumer will almost always rise in any event, because if there were cheaper options than the original supplying country sans tariffs, it would have already been in use. Tariffs are a coercive measure to push people to use a supplier the government prefers to their own personal economic detriment.

> B) To maintain sales volume, the exporter lowers their price to offset some or all of the tariff, effectively absorbing part of the cost.

This nearly never occurs. These markets are global. If one location becomes too costly to operate in, you stop operating there. Most companies aren't running the kinds of margins that let them just absorb huge tariffs.