US President Donald Trump speaks, before signing decrees, in the White House Oval Office in Washington, DC, United States, April 9, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
President Donald Trump exempted smartphones, computers and other technological devices and components from his reciprocal, new prices advice Since Customs and the protection of American borders shows.
Advice, published late Friday evening, intervene after Trump earlier this month imposed 145% tariffs on China products, a decision that threatened to wreak havoc on technology giants like AppleThis makes iPhones and most of its other products in China.
Advice also includes exclusions for other electronic devices and components, including semiconductors, solar cells, flat-screen TV screens, flash players and memory cards.
THE White House said exemptions were made on Saturday because Trump wants to make sure that companies have time to move production in the United States
The assistant press secretary of the White House, Kush Desai, said in a statement that Trump “clearly said that America could not count on China to make critical technologies such as semiconductors, fleas, smartphones and laptops”.
“In the direction of the president, these companies collapsed to expand their manufacture in the United States as soon as possible,” said Desai.
The 20 categories of products listed in CBP guidelines are apparently exempt from the 125% rate imposed by Trump on Chinese imports and the reference rate of 10% on imports from other countries. A tariff of 20% on all Chinese products remains in force.
CNBC has asked the White House and CBP to confirm the total effective rate rate on exempt products, but has so far received no final response.
Exemptions are a victory for technological companies like Apple, which manufactures the majority of its products in China. The country makes 80% of iPads and more than half of Mac Products computers, according to Evercore ISI.
“This is the dream scenario for technological investors,” said CNBC Dan Ives, a global technology research manager at Wedbush Securities. “Smartphones, excluded tokens are a game changer scenario with regard to prices in China.”
He added that the prices were a “black cloud on technology since the day of the release, because no sector was going to be more injured than Big Tech”.
“I think in the end, the big CEOs of Tech spoke strongly, and the White House had to understand and listen to the situation that it would have been Armageddon for Big Tech if it was implemented,” said Ives.
In the days following the announcement of Trump’s tariff, Apple lost more than $ 640 billion in market value, CNBC previously reported. The cost of an iPhone under the Trump pricing plan could have hung up to $ 3,500 under certain estimates.
Since the announcement of Trump’s prices, actions have sold strongly as an inception and volatility on Wall Street enriched. The S&P 500 plunged more than 5% during the period until the end of Friday.
The yield of the Treasury to 10 years of reference has skyrocketed more than 50 base points during the week, one of its greatest survey jumps, because the boost of Trump’s trade policy has led investors to sell American assets.
The bond market movement may have forced the hand of the White House to certain inversions, including a suspended price of 90 days in most countries in favor of a universal rate of 10% announced on Wednesday – excluding China.
The articles excluded from Trump’s reciprocal prices under new guidelines are retroactive for products that have left the warehouse by April 5, 2025. This provides clarity and financial planning for the American sender, which is responsible for paying the price once it will arrive at weeks later for American customs for treatment and release.
