After more than a week when tariffs are increasing to products imported from China, Trump Administration has released a rule saved by smartphones, computers, semiconductors and other electronics from some fees at the end of Friday, in a significant break for technology companies such as Apple and Dell, and iPhone prices and other consumer electronics.
AND message Published late on Friday by American customs and border protections, it included a long list of products that would face President Trump Trump in recent days on Chinese goods as part of a deteriorating trade wars. The exclusion would also apply to modems, routers, flash drives and other technological goods that are not largely created in the United States.
Exceptions are not complete retribution. Other tariffs will still apply to electronics and smartphones. At the beginning of this year, Trump’s administration used a 20 percent tariff for Chinese goods for what the administration said was the role of the country in the fentanyl trade. And the administration could still end up growing semiconductor tariffs, an essential part of smartphones and other electronics.
The movements were the first main exceptions to Chinese goods that would have extensive consequences for the US economy if they persist. Technical giants such as Apple and Nvidia would largely go through repressive taxes that could reduce their profits. Consumers – some of which were rushing to buy iPhone last week – would avoid the main potential price increase in smartphones, computers and other aids. And exceptions could suppress further inflation and calm the riots that many economists feared that they could lead to a recession.
The relief of the tariff was also the latest flip-flop in an effort to rewrite the global business in an effort to strengthen American production. The factories that spew iPhone, laptops and other electronics are deeply rooted in Asia – especially in China – and it is unlikely to move without galvanizing forces such as the steep taxes that Trump’s administration suggested.
“It is difficult to know if it is within the administration of realization, that the reworking of the US economy is Gargantuan efforts,” said Matthew Slaughter, Dean Tuck School of Business in Dartmouth.
Exceptions to electronics apply to all countries, not only to China.
However, any relief to the electronic industry may be short -term because Trump’s administration is preparing further trade investigations of the national semiconductor security. This will also apply to some subsequent products such as electronics, because many semiconductors come to the United States inside other facilities, a person familiar with this matter said. These investigations have previously resulted in other tariffs.
The White House spokesman Karoline Leitt said on Saturday that Mr. Trump was still determined to see more of these products and components produced on the domestic market. “President Trump explained that America could not rely on China to produce critical technologies” and that technology companies “in their direction” increased to the mainland in the United States as soon as possible, “she said.
The manager of the administration who spoke in the background because they were not entitled to speak publicly, said Friday’s exceptions were aimed at maintaining the US semiconductor offer, basic technologies used on smartphones, cars, toups and dozens of other products. Many top semiconductors are produced overseas, for example on Taiwan.
Paul Ashworth, the chief economist of North America for the capital economy, said that this step “represents a partial de-schooling of President Trump’s trade war with China”.
He said that 20 types of products that were liberated on Friday represent almost a quarter of US imports from China. Other countries in Asia would be even larger winners, he said. If the tariffs reappear in these countries, liberation would cover 64 percent of American imports from Tai -wan, 44 percent of Malaysia imports and almost a third of Vietnam and Thailand imports, he said.
The changes interrupted the Wild Week in which Mr. Trump retreated from many tariffs, which he introduced 2. April, which he called “Liberation Day”. His so -called mutual tariffs have introduced taxes that would reach up to 40 percent of products imported from some nations. After the markets with shares and bonds were rolling, Mr. Trump turned the course and said he would suspend fees for 90 days.
China was the only exception to Mr. Trump’s relief because Beijing decided to retaliate against American tariffs with his own fees. Instead of stopping tariffs on Chinese imports, Mr. Trump raised them to 145 percent and showed no willingness to save any companies from these fees. In return, China said on Friday that it increases its tariffs to US goods to 125 percent.
This sent the shares of many technology companies to free fall. During the four days of trading, Apple’s valuation, which is about 80 percent of its iPhone phones in China, dropped by $ 773 billion.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s moderation is a great relief for the technology industry, which spent months of the Cozing to the President. Meta, Amazon, and several technological leaders donated millions of inauguration of President Trump, behind him stood behind him when he was sworn in the office in January and promised to invest billions of dollars in the United States to support him.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was in the forefront of the industrial courtship Mr. Trump. He donated $ 1 million inauguration Mr. Trump and later visited the White House to commit that Apple would spend $ 500 billion in the United States in the United States.
This strategy repeated Mr. Cook’s tactics during Mr. Trump’s first term. In order to ask Apple to produce its products in the United States rather than in China, Mr. Cook cultivated a personal relationship with the president who helped win the exemptions from the tariffs for his iPhone, smart watches and laptops.
It was unclear whether Mr. Cook could get a similar break this time and the tariffs that Mr. Trump suggested were more serious. Since Trump’s management has increased its tax from Chinese goods, Wall Street analysts said Apple might have to raise the price of its iPhone from $ 1,000 to more than $ 1,600.
The threat of higher iPhone prices caused some Americans to hurry to Apple stores to buy new phones. Others raced to buy computers and tablets that were made in China.
Apple did not answer immediately to the request for comment.
The Apple iPhone quickly became a symbol of tit-for-to be over tariffs with China. On Sunday, the Minister of Commerce Howard Lutnick appeared on the CBS “Face The Nation” and said tariffs would lead to “military and millions of people who screwed small, small screws in the United States”. Mrs. Leitt later said in the week that Mr. Trump believes that the United States has resources to produce iPhone for Apple.
“Apple has invested $ 500 billion in the United States,” she said. “So if Apple didn’t think the United States could do it, they would probably not become the big piece of changes.”
Apple has been facing questions about moving some iPhone production to the United States for over ten years. In 2011, President Obama asked Steve Jobs, a co -founder of Apple, what would be needed to create the company’s best -selling product in the United States than in China. In 2016, Mr. Trump also pushed Apple to change his position.
Mr. Cook remained persistent in his commitment to China and said that the United States did not have enough qualified manufacturing workers to compete with China.
“In the US you could have a meeting of tool engineers and I’m not sure if we could fill the room,” he said at Conference at the end of 2017. “In China you could fill in several football fields.”
In the next few weeks or months, other tariffs could come to semiconductors and other electronics. The administration indicated that it was considering such tariffs according to the legal status known as Section 232, along with other tariffs to imported pharmacies.
The President has already used the status to give 25 % tariff on imported steel, aluminum and cars and weigh similar steps for imported lumber and copper. All these sectors were issued an exception to the so -called reciprocal tariffs, which the President announced on April 2.
The president who spoke to reporters said that other chips will be “starting very soon” and added that the administration is also looking at the pharmacy tariffs. “We will announce that sometime in the near future,” he said. “It’s subordinate right now.”
The other tariffs that Trump’s administration entered through the 232 section was set at 25 percent – much lower than 145 % of the tariff that he currently founded for many products from China.
Maggie Haberman contributed by reporting.
