US Tech Giants Excluded from 145% Tariffs: What It Means

The US government has excluded smartphones, computers, and other electronic goods from ‘mutual’ tariffs, offering relief to global tech giants like Apple and Nvidia. These exclusions, announced late on Friday (April 11, 2025), by the US Customs and Border Protection Service, limit the scope of duties, exempting products from Trump’s 125% China tariff and the global 10% Trump tariff on nearly all other countries. Specifically, exemptions apply to smartphones, laptops, hard drives, processors, computer memory chips, and flat screens. These popular consumer electronics are not manufactured in the US, according to Bloomberg. The pause is welcome news for consumers who rushed to buy new iPhones and other devices amid fears that tariffs would skyrocket prices. It’s also a significant win for major tech companies that have committed massive spending in the US over the past months. Trump’s tariffs disrupted global markets, causing a stock sell-off and escalating a rapidly growing trade war with China. This product exemption marks the first significant easing in the Trump-China conflict. The exemptions cover imports worth nearly $390 billion to the US based on official US trade statistics for 2024, including over $101 billion from China, according to data compiled by Gerard DiPippo, deputy director of the Rand China Research Center. The most significant category of exemptions is smartphones, with the US importing over $41 billion worth from China in 2024, accounting for 9% of total imports from China. Following this are computers and similar devices, where the US imported more than $36 billion in 2024. Overall, the exemptions cover widely consumed electronics and semiconductors amounting to roughly 22% of US imports from China in 2024, said DiPippo. On Saturday (April 12, 2025), Trump refused to clarify the exemptions but hinted at further developments on Monday (April 14, 2025). ‘We will be very specific on Monday,’ the president told reporters aboard Air Force One. The White House emphasized that America cannot rely on China for critical technologies like semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops, citing investments of billions in the US by leading global tech firms.