WASHINGTON/WEST PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump’s administration has granted exclusions from steep reciprocal tariffs to smartphones, computers, and some other electronics imported largely from China, offering a major reprieve to tech companies like Apple that rely on overseas products.
In a notice to shippers, the US Customs and Border Protection agency published a list of tariff codes excluded from the import duties. The exclusions are retroactive to 12:01 am EDT (0401 GMT) on 5 April.
The US CBP listed 20 product categories, including the broad 8471 code covering all computers, laptops, disc drives, and automatic data processing equipment. It also included semiconductor devices, equipment, memory chips, and flat panel displays.
The notice did not include a reason for the move, but the late-night exemption provides welcome relief to major technology firms such as Apple, Dell Technologies, and many other importers.
Trump’s move also exempts the specified electronics from his 10% “baseline” tariffs on goods from most countries outside China, reducing import costs for semiconductors from Taiwan and Apple iPhones assembled in India.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives called the announcement “the most bullish news we could have heard this weekend”.
“There is still clear uncertainty and volatility ahead with these China negotiations… Big Tech firms like Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, and the wider tech industry can breathe a huge sigh of relief this weekend into Monday,” Ives wrote in an industry note.
Many tech company CEOs have embraced Trump as he begins his second term, attending his 20 January inauguration in Washington and celebrating with him afterwards. Apple CEO Tim Cook hosted a pre-inaugural ball and has visited Trump at his Florida residence.
For the Chinese imports, the exclusion only applies to Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which rose to 125% this week, according to a White House official. His earlier 20% duties on all Chinese imports – which he linked to the US fentanyl crisis – remain in place.
However, the official said Trump is set to launch a new national security trade investigation into semiconductors, which could result in further tariffs.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump has made it clear the US cannot rely on China for the manufacture of critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops.
She added that, under Trump’s direction, major tech firms – including Apple and chipmakers Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor – “are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible”.
Tariff pain
The exemptions suggest growing awareness within the Trump administration of the hardship his tariffs could place on inflation-weary consumers.
Even at a reduced 54% tariff rate on Chinese imports, analysts predicted the price of a high-end Apple iPhone could jump to $2,300 from $1,599. At 125%, economists have warned US-China trade could come to a near standstill.
Smartphones were the top US import from China in 2024, totalling $41.7 billion, with Chinese-built laptops close behind at $33.1 billion, according to US Census Bureau data.
Apple recently chartered cargo flights to transport 600 tonnes of iPhones – as many as 1.5 million – from India to the US after boosting production there in a bid to circumvent Trump’s tariffs, Reuters reported on Friday.
Trump’s campaign to reclaim the White House last year centred largely on a pledge to cut consumer prices, which had been driven up by inflation and damaged the economic legacy of former President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies.
Nevertheless, Trump also vowed to impose tariffs central to his economic strategy, dismissing financial market turbulence and rising prices from the levies as a necessary disruption to rebalance the global trading order.
His so-called “reciprocal tariffs”, however, sparked recession fears and drew criticism from within his own Republican Party, with some wary of losing control of Congress in next year’s mid-term elections. Democrats have also fiercely criticised Trump’s approach.
Last week, Trump delayed increased tariff rates for 57 trade partners and the European Union, keeping most nations at a 10% rate as they continue trade negotiations with Washington.
The US president, spending the weekend at his Florida home, told reporters on Friday he was at ease with the high tariffs on China but maintained a good relationship with President Xi Jinping. He expressed optimism that something positive might emerge from their trade standoff.
Financial markets were rattled again on Friday after China matched Trump’s latest tariff hike on US goods, raising duties to 125%. The escalation has threatened to wreak havoc on global supply chains.
US stocks ended a volatile week higher, but gold surged to a record high during the session. Benchmark US 10-year government bond yields recorded their largest weekly rise since 2001, while the dollar fell sharply – a sign of waning investor confidence.
