Monday, April 14th 2025
Trump Exempts Electronics and GPUs from China Tariffs to Ease Tech Costs
President Trump announced late Friday that a range of electronics imported from China will not be hit by his new reciprocal tariffs, according to a US Customs and Border Protection notice. The exemption, which applies to items arriving in the United States or leaving bonded warehouses on or after April 5, covers smartphones, computer monitors, semiconductors, various electronic parts, and, importantly, high-performance GPUs. Tech companies were bracing for big cost increases. Apple, for example, assembles about 90 percent of its iPhones in China and holds roughly six weeks of inventory in US warehouses. Without this exemption, consumers would likely have seen higher prices once that stock ran out. Framework, the modular laptop maker, has already paused US sales of some Laptop 13 models and discounted others by up to 12 percent after a new 10 percent tariff on Taiwanese parts squeezed their margins.
The GPU market got another break thanks to a clever workaround in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. A research firm SemiAnalysis pointed out that graphics cards made in Taiwan can still enter the US tariff-free if they undergo final assembly in Mexico or Canada. That loophole applies to digital processing units and related circuit boards, which means companies relying on NVIDIA's top-tier accelerators for AI won't see an immediate price jump. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said these steps are part of a two-pronged plan: offering short-term relief to keep consumer prices down while at the same time pushing major tech firms like Apple, TSMC, and NVIDIA to invest billions in US manufacturing. However, many experts warn that high-precision components are still largely made in Asia, so building up domestic production capacity could take months or even years and may remain more expensive in the meantime.
Update: President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social the following: "There was no Tariff "exception" announced on Friday. These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff "bucket."We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations."
Source:
CNN
The GPU market got another break thanks to a clever workaround in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. A research firm SemiAnalysis pointed out that graphics cards made in Taiwan can still enter the US tariff-free if they undergo final assembly in Mexico or Canada. That loophole applies to digital processing units and related circuit boards, which means companies relying on NVIDIA's top-tier accelerators for AI won't see an immediate price jump. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said these steps are part of a two-pronged plan: offering short-term relief to keep consumer prices down while at the same time pushing major tech firms like Apple, TSMC, and NVIDIA to invest billions in US manufacturing. However, many experts warn that high-precision components are still largely made in Asia, so building up domestic production capacity could take months or even years and may remain more expensive in the meantime.
Update: President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social the following: "There was no Tariff "exception" announced on Friday. These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff "bucket."We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations."
40 Comments on Trump Exempts Electronics and GPUs from China Tariffs to Ease Tech Costs
doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon.
If they were serious about this they would have taken a page out of the Indian playbook and set up a reasonable timeline to get manufacturers who want market access to produce locally or tax the hell out of the imported products.
And just ban Temu and other obviously to cheap junk from amazon and other such markets.
In any case I think the whole "tariffs everywhere" idea started so wrongly and so unprepared, that in my opinion looks more like stock market manipulation than a real economic strategy for the country.
In the end I believe US is going to put a standard 10% tariff in everything, but stuff coming from China - they will keep a higher tariff there, only to somehow justify the current mess and give some arguments to those behind this ""tariffs" idea, to stay out of jail when the next president gets elected.
And since the entirety of congress is a bunch of inside trading ****** it was abused to make a quick buck.
it's sad the world folded so soon
Talk to any of Trump's supporters. They will follow this pattern. This chaos is 'The Art of the Deal' to them.
So no. Don't expect any change. Expect more of this.
It takes a year to build a factory and often 20 years before that factory pays itself back. Manufacturers are not concerned with short term 2 or 4 year political cycles.
This is 100% market manipulation.
No one wins except Trump and his inner circle of Billionaires playing the stock market. Trump has learned he can make the stock market jump or fall with just a few tweets. They're gonna keep milking us until someone stops them. (And because the base is happy with the 'Art of the Deal' argument to defend flip flops, do NOT expect his supporters to revolt over this).
--------
I suggest Americans to buy computers roughly timed up with Tim Cooks dinners and donations to Trump.
I guess this pause was NVidia CEO Jensen having a dinner last week with Trump actually. But you get the gist: a pause when a CEO has dinner with Trump.
We have a pause for now. Then the tariffs will come back which forces a new $million dinner with some CEO and Trump. And then a few days later we will see tariffs lifted and that CEO richer for it.
The flipflop IS the plan. It's hugely beneficial to Trump's inner circle.
All would just be shipped to Mexico and Canada, "remanufactured" and enter the US tarrif free. So would be a great boost to them.
The opposite of what Trump wants to do..!
American businesses aren't interested in creating the thousands of multi million dollar plants in the states required to build their products for a mere 500% to 1000% price increase. They will simply do what @mb194dc suggests and ship their goods out of China to less taxed countries, then move them into the US. Once their current supply has been depleted they will have had no problems finding other suppliers like Vietnam, Malaysia, India etc that will provide the same low cost manufacturing/production they're accustomed to. Oh, and aren't being hit with the 125% tariffs.
Low cost manufacturing in the USA won't be revived by some hair brained 4 year tariff plan. You need ultra cheap labor to even think about that "plan". Where exactly is that going to come from? Certainly not in America...
All I want to say is that.... I am keeping out of this.
oh wait, its already slowly started to happen.
going to be fun when we can't pay the interest on our 37 trillion debt cause no one is buying our treasury bonds anymore, lmao
I don't want to get into this too much though, it makes no sense why TPU is allowing politics, but I know why they are for obvious reasons.
These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff “bucket.” The Administration are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations.
Electronics manufacturing: just push some buttons on the machine, how hard can it be
It's pretty common to be dismissive of things you're ignorant about. I do it too. But it's important to try and recognize that instinct and combat it. Be curious. Take a look at some of the electronics factory tours W1zzard's shared on TPU. There's still need for skilled technicians on sections of assembly.
P.S. Trade policy: just apply some tariffs, how hard can it be
Your cheap labour is being viciously deported to a gulag in El Salvador, and you can't exclude "politics" from a subject that is centered on politics. No wonder you lot don't understand anything about the way the world works. I'm not even from the US and I understand how the US works better than you do lol.
And no people outside the US reading news headlines don't know how it works.
Cheap labor in the United States and cheap labor in China and the countries I mentioned are on completely different planets right? They aren't comparable on any scale.