Array
Don’t rush to the store to buy that new iPhone just yet. After a week of volatility in the markets over Donald Trump’s tariffs, investors mainly returned to normal by the end of the week, ending on a positive upswing on Friday. The one exception was among tech stocks such as Apple, where tariffs would hit their supply chains hard.
Until late last night, that is. Trump has repeated his exemption to tariffs on higher-end electronics that he applied in the first term against China, according to US Customs and Border Patrol:
Smartphones, laptop computers, memory chips and other electronics will be exempt from President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on China, according to new guidance from the administration, in another step back that could ease some consumer concerns about an immediate spike in costs for electronic products.
The guidance, published Friday night by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also exempts machines used to create semiconductors, flat screen TVs, tablets and desktop computers from Trump’s 125% China tariff and his 10% baseline tariff on countries around the world.
The baseline tariff on these items still applies, according to the New York Times. That’s the ten-percent threshold tariff on all trade as well as the additional twenty percent that Trump applied to China over fentanyl trafficking. The punitive tariffs that Trump escalated specifically on China the previous week will be exempted on these classes of imports, however:
A message posted late Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection included a long list of products that would not face the reciprocal tariffs President Trump imposed in recent days on Chinese goods as part of a worsening trade war.
