The Friday announcement would have benefited big tech companies like Apple and Samsung and chip makers like Nvidia, setting the stage for a likely tech stock rally today.
US Customs and Border Protection said items like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors, and some chips would qualify for the exemption. Machines used to make semiconductors are excluded. That means they won’t be subject to the current 145 per cent tariffs levied on China or the 10 per cent baseline tariffs elsewhere.
Initially, it looked like Jobs’ Mob dodged a financial mugging. The Fruity Cargo Cult Apple faced the threat of triple retail prices on its precious slabs; US Customs and Border Protection confirmed a temporary break from the reciprocal tariffs lobbed by President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Experts have warned that forcing a company like Apple to manufacture iPhones in America could come at a steep cost. According to Bank of America analysts led by Wamsi Mohan, the cost of manufacturing the device could potentially double. The cost of labour alone could increase 25 per cent, they said.
Another analyst, Wedbush’s Dan Ives, estimated that an iPhone made in the US could cost $3,500 — nearly triple the retail price. Apple currently manufactures more than 80 per cent of its products in China.
However, any sense of relief from Apple and Big Tech is on borrowed time.
Commerce Secretary Lutnick told ABC's This Week that the exemption was “only temporary.” The administration, he said, is cooking up a new wave of “semiconductor tariffs” expected to hit in a month or two. That means smartphones, computers, and chips might soon be slugged under a fresh scheme designed to force more US manufacturing.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said: “All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they're going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure those products get restored.”
“We can't be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us. So what [President Donald Trump's] doing is he's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. Still, they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two.”
