Tariff exemptions on a raft of electronics entering the US — including smartphones and computers — have slipped through in the middle of the night.
In a notice to shippers, the US Customs and Border Protection agency published a list of tariff codes that would be excluded from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
This means they will not be subject to 145 per cent tariffs levied on China or the 10 per cent baseline tariffs elsewhere.
The move brought a “sigh of relief” to the tech sector, including mega companies like Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft.
“A big step forward for US tech to get these exemptions and the most bullish news we could have heard this weekend,” said analyst firm Wedbush in a statement to CNN.
“Now onto the next step in negotiations on the broader China tariff war which will take a number of months at least.”
The exclusions are retroactive to 12.01am on April 5.
Earlier, a Wedbush analyst had warned that the “tariff economic Armageddon” unleashed by Trump would be a “complete disaster” for Apple, which has 90 per cent of its iPhones produced and assembled in China.
Customs and Border Control listed 20 product categories for tariff exemption on Saturday night (US time), including the very broad 8471 code for all computers, laptops, disc drives and automatic data processing.
It also included semiconductor devices, equipment, memory chips and flat panel displays.
The White House tried to spin the latest move to suggest it would give companies more time to move their production to the US.
“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to the BBC.
“At the direction of the president, these companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”
But the exemptions suggest an increasing awareness within the US administration of the pain that his tariffs had in store for consumers, especially on popular products such as smartphones, laptops and other electronics.
Trump ran for re-election last year largely on a promise to bring down prices that had rocketed and tarnished the economic reputation of US president Joe Biden and his Democratic allies.
But Trump also promised as a candidate to impose the tariffs that have become a central part of his economic agenda, and the president has dismissed the turbulence in financial markets and expected price increases arising from the levies as a disturbance that was a necessary part of realigning the global economy and world trading order with his vision.
His so-called “reciprocal tariffs,” however, raised fears of a US recession and drew criticism from his fellow Republicans, who do not want to lose control of the US House of Representatives and Senate in next year’s midterm elections to Democrats, who have sharply criticised Trump’s policies.
Trump, who is spending the weekend at his residence in Florida, told reporters on Friday he was comfortable with the high tariffs on China but respected President Xi Jinping and believed something good would come out of the trade conflict between them.
While Trump paused most country-specific tariffs for 90 days following a plunge in global stock markets earlier this week, a 145 per cent levy remains in place for Chinese imports.
-with AP and DPA
