In a surprising turn of events, which is how we could literally describe the entire last two weeks, the Trump administration exempted computers, smartphones, and other electronics from its 145% tariff on China, sighing relief from Razer, HP, Dell, Microsoft, ASUS, and Acer.
According to Bloomberg and others' reporting, US Customs and Border Protection published the latest exemption late Friday night.
Indeed, not only will laptops, PCs, gaming consoles, and smartphones not be hit at 145% (which is not even feasible for importing), but they won’t even be hit with the temporary but still punishing 10% tariff levied on all other countries.
That means we should see no direct effect on consumer prices for electronics, as semiconductors are also, for the most part, off the table. Of course, there could be residual ripple effects, as laptops don’t come premade and must be assembled with many components often sourced globally, all of which could incur minor costs before final assembly and import to the US.
Likewise, the continued uncertainty and chaos with tariffs could also cause PC makers to control production and shipping closely so as not to be caught holding the bag on pallets of computers in China should things go south between Trump and Beijing.
Other things exempted include hard drives, computer processors, and memory chips.
Earlier this week, Razer seemingly halted sales of its laptops in the US from its website. Acer had already announced increases, and we saw some gaming handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go S and MSI Claw go up $50 and $100, respectively.
But had the 145% tariffs gone into effect on consumer electronic imports, the price of everything would have more than doubled, which means Best Buy, Amazon, and others would have skipped restocking, leaving store shelves empty.
However, as Bloomberg notes, the “tariff reprieve may prove fleeting,” as the “exclusion is a sign that the products may soon be subject to a different tariff, albeit almost surely a lower one for China.”
In other words, this is far from over. But, for now, the entire consumer tech industry must feel a little better this morning.
Keep up to date on all the tariff drama and how it affects PCs, laptops, gaming consoles, and more in our ongoing tariff live blog.
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