The Trump administration announced late Friday that it will exempt certain electronics, including smartphones and laptops, from reciprocal tariffs.
The move is expected to ease pressure on consumers and offer a boost to major tech firms like Apple, Samsung, and chipmakers such as Nvidia, reports UNB via AP.
US Customs and Border Protection said that items like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors, and some chips will be excluded from the current 145% tariffs on Chinese goods and 10% tariffs applied to other countries. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment will also be exempt.
Late on Saturday, while travelling to Miami, Trump said he would give more details of the exemptions at the start of next week.
Apple unlikely to make iPhones in US despite Trump's China tariffs
"We'll be very specific," he told reporters on Air Force One. "But we're taking in a lot of money. As a country we're taking in a lot of money."
The move came after concerns from US tech companies that the price of gadgets could skyrocket, as many of them are made in China.
Exemptions - backdated to April 5 - also include other electronic devices and components, including semiconductors, solar cells and memory cards, reports BBC.
Trump had previously suggested the trade war could encourage Apple to manufacture iPhones in the US, but industry experts have long doubted that prospect given Apple's complex supply chain in China.
Relocating iPhone production would require years of planning and billions in investment, potentially tripling the cost of the product and slashing its sales. The new exemption echoes relief measures granted during Trump's first term, when similar tariffs were imposed.
Trump entered his second term with a more aggressive approach to tariffs, which sparked a market slide. The "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks—Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, Google parent Alphabet, and Facebook parent Meta—saw a $2.1 trillion drop in combined market value, or 14%, since April 2, when sweeping tariffs were unveiled. That loss narrowed to $644 billion after Trump paused tariffs outside of China last Wednesday.
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