After more than a week of ratcheting up tariffs on products imported from China, the Trump administration issued a rule late Friday that appeared to spare smartphones, computers and other electronics from some of the fees, giving tech companies like Apple and Dell a break from levies that threatened to upend their businesses and increase prices for consumers.
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 Donald Trump imposed in recent days on Chinese goods as part of a worsening trade war. Apart from smartphones and laptop computers, the exclusions would also apply to transistors and semiconductors, which are largely not made in the United States.
Some tariffs will still apply to electronics and smartphones. The Trump administration had applied a tariff of 20% on Chinese goods earlier this year because of its role in the fentanyl trade.
But Friday’s change punctuated a wild week in which Trump backtracked from many tariffs he introduced on April 2, which he had called “liberation day.” His so-called reciprocal tariffs had introduced taxes that would reach 40% or more on products imported from some nations. After the stock and bond markets plunged, Trump reversed course and said he would pause levies for 90 days.
Because Beijing chose to retaliate against U.S. tariffs with levies of its own, China was the one exception to Trump’s relief. Instead of pausing tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump increased them to 145% and showed no willingness to spare any companies from those fees. In return, China on Friday said it was raising its tariffs on American goods to 125%.
That sent shares of many technology companies into free fall, since many of the firms manufacture their products in China. Over four days of trading, the market capitalization of Apple, which makes about 80% of its iPhones in China, fell by $773 billion.
The smartphone and electronics exemptions are a repeat of the way Trump approached trade confrontation with China when he was last in the White House. During that time, the Trump administration exempted smartphones, smartwatches and most electronics from tariffs.
The post New rule exempts smartphones and computers from most tariffs appeared first on New York Times.
