President Donald Trump’s administration exempts laptops, cellphones, and other gadgets from its reciprocal tariffs to protect customers from sticker shock and help tech giants like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
US Customs and Border Protection released the exemptions late last Friday. They limit the reach of the levies by removing the goods from Trump’s base 10% worldwide duty on almost all other nations and his 125% China tariff.
The exceptions include computer processors, memory chips, hard drives, laptops, and smartphones.
Those well-known consumer electronics products are typically not produced in the US. Establishing local manufacturing would take years.
Also exempt from Trump’s new tariffs are semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
That would be crucial for other chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which just announced a significant new investment in the US.
The reprieve from tariffs might not last long. The exceptions result from the original ruling, which stopped additional tariffs on specific industries from building up on top of the national rates.
The exclusion indicates that the products may soon be subject to a different duty, most likely a lower one for China.
One such exemption was for semiconductors, a target of a particular tariff that Trump has frequently promised to impose.
Although he has not done so, the most recent exclusions support that exemption.
Trump has put his sectors tariffs at 25% so yet, but it is unclear what his rate would be for semiconductors and similar goods. When Bloomberg contacted for comment, the White House did not immediately reply.
