It also appears to be a strategic move to calm business nerves and voter concerns over inflation and supply chain turmoil.
The exclusions, published late Friday by US Customs and Border Protection, narrow the scope of the levies by excluding the products from Trump’s 125% China tariff and his baseline 10% global tariff on nearly all other countries, reported Bloomberg.
The tariff exclusions cover a wide range of popular consumer electronics, including smartphones, laptops, hard drives, processors, and memory chips — most of which are not manufactured in the US. Establishing domestic production for these items would take years.
Also exempted are machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, a crucial win for companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which has committed to major investments in the US, along with other chipmakers.
However, this relief may be short-lived. The exclusions stem from the initial directive, which aimed to prevent cumulative tariffs from stacking on top of nationwide duties. While these exemptions provide temporary relief, they hint that new, potentially lower, China-specific tariffs on these products may be in the pipeline.Semiconductors, in particular, have been singled out by Trump for targeted tariffs, though no specific rate has yet been imposed. Thus far, his sector-specific tariffs have been set at 25%, but the exact figure for chips and related technologies remains uncertain.The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, reported Bloomberg.
According to updated guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, smartphones, laptops, and essential tech components will be excluded from President Donald Trump’s newly announced 125% reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports.
The exemptions now extend beyond mobile devices and computers to include vital hardware such as semiconductors, solar cells, flat-panel displays, flash drives, memory cards, and solid-state drives.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection released detailed guidelines on tariff exemptions for select products — including semiconductors, electronic devices, and AI servers
*As long as the exported product to U.S. aligned with the HS code below, the tariffs will be exempted.
Here’s the complete list:
- Automatic data processing machines and units thereof; magnetic or optical readers, etc.
- Parts and accessories of the machines of heading
- Machines/apparatus for manufacture of semiconductor devices/electronic integrated circuits
- Communication equipment (e.g., routers, switches, etc.)
- Solid-state non-volatile storage devices (e.g., NAND Flash Memory or SSD )
- Records, tapes and other recorded media for sound/data
- Monitors for use with ADP machines
- Diodes (excluding photosensitive and light-emitting diodes)
- Transistors with power dissipation < 1W
- Thyristors, diacs, and triacs (excluding photosensitive devices)
- Mounted piezoelectric crystals
- Transistors (classified under other semiconductor devices)
- Optical coupled isolators
- Other semiconductor devices
- Semiconductor-based transducers
- Other semiconductor devices
- Parts of semiconductor devices
- Electronic integrated circuits
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
