Tariff exemptions for smartphones and other tech: What it means for you
Consumers in the market for new phones and other tech "can breathe a sigh of relief," Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said.
Planning to buy a new iPhone or other smartphone? You may have just caught a break on tariffs.
President Donald Trump issued some exemptions in tariffs targeted at imports from China. The exemptions include smartphones, computers, processing chips and other electronics.
The price of an iPhone had been projected go as high as $2,300 under Trump's plan to impose 54% tariffs on China – and since then, Trump had boosted import assessments to 145% against the United States' third-largest trading partner.
These latest exemptions, posted April 11, are a "dream scenario for tech, because now chips, smartphones, computers all get exempt," Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives told Paste BN.
Silicon Valley and tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia can breath a sigh of relief, he said. Trump "ultimately had to listen to Silicon Valley and what industry executives were telling him in the White House: If they went down this path and didn't exempt tech, it would have been just dark days ahead," Ives said.
Though excluded from the 125% tariffs on China, the tech products appear to still be subject to 20% tariffs Trump already had imposed on Beijing in retaliation for the manufacturing of fentanyl in China.
Latest Trump tariff move good news for iPhone shoppers
This tariff development is good news for consumers, Ives said. "They can breathe a sigh of relief because this, it's a game-changer. … You don't have to rush out to the store. We're not seeing $2,000 iPhones anymore."
Most of the 200 million iPhones Apple produces annually are made in China. The price today of the recently released iPhone 16e is $699 for the 256-gigabyte model; the more decked-out iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999.
Tech companies like Apple and Samsung rely on computer chips made in Taiwan (and to a growing extent, Mexico), although the Trump and Biden administrations have sought to increase production in the United States.
Last month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest chipmaker and a leading supplier to Apple, Amazon and other U.S. tech giants, announced plans to build factories in the United States.
With years needed to ramp up production, tech companies would be faced with higher-than-premium prices on chips amid an artificial intelligence arms race.
Without the exemptions, "the US Tech industry would be taken back a decade and the AI Revolution thesis would have been slowed significantly," Ives wrote in a note to investors April 12.
With the exemptions, it's as if there's a "weight lifted off tech and the market shoulders," Ives said.
Tempered tariffs are good for investors, too. Ives expects tech stocks to rally when the market opens.
Tariff exemptions: More to come?
Amid the 90-day pause of reciprocal tariffs, the Trump administration can expect requests for additional exemptions, Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade negotiator who is now at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told Bloomberg.
“Other companies and countries as well are now going to intensify their efforts to secure their own exceptions, complicating the 90-day negotiations underway," she said.
One of the other industries looking for an exemption: Makers of baby and children’s products such as formula, diapers and wipes – a category that saw the passage of the 2022 Formula Act, which lifted tariffs on imported baby formula amid a nationwide shortage.
(This story has been updated to correct a misspelling/typo.)
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Jessica Guynn and Mary Walrath-Holdridge.
Mike Snider is a reporter on Paste BN’s Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
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