President Trump exempts smartphones, laptops, and semiconductors from new tariffs

United States President Donald Trump has decided to exclude smartphones, computers, and other consumer electronics from higher tariffs, even if they’re imported from China.

The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published a list of product categories that are excluded from the reciprocal tariffs that were imposed under Executive Order 14257.

The list of excluded products originally dates back to April 5 but was updated last weekend to include more products. This was done because last week, it was suggested that some products, like smartphones, would become two to three times more expensive in the US if the costs for the new import tariffs were passed on to consumers.

Some of the exemptions on the CPB’s list include smartphones, hard drives, laptops, computer processors, and memory chips. Machines used to make semiconductors are also not covered by President Trump’s new trade tariffs. These products are typically not made in the United States. Setting up domestic production, what President Trump would like to see, would take years.

The exemptions also apply to parts entering the United States from China. Last week, the US raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent.

American tech companies like Apple and NVIDIA will definitely welcome the news because they don’t have to increase the selling prices of their products.

Last week, President Trump announced higher tariffs on nearly all products that the US imports from other countries. This caused a lot of commotion on stock exchanges worldwide.

After a turbulent week on the stock markets, Trump decided to issue a “90-day pause” on higher tariffs for most countries. Except for China, the President lowered the tariffs for all countries to his 10 percent baseline. Trump is going to use the upcoming months to try to make better trade deals.

According to Reuters, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump has made clear the US cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops.

She also said that, in Trump’s direction, major tech firms, including Apple and NVIDIA, “are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”