US announces tariff exemptions for phones, computers, and more goods from China
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- Commerce Secretary Lutnick says the tariff exemptions are temporary
Summary
- The US Customs and Border Protection agency has announced exemptions from tariffs on electronics like smartphones, computers, and other products from China.
- This brings relief to smartphone manufacturers like Apple and OnePlus, who rely heavily on China for production.
- Brands like Google and Samsung were not expected to be impacted heavily, given that their products are made across multiple countries.
The past few weeks have made it very clear how quickly things can change in the economy, as US tariffs on goods from China were expected to kick in last week. With the tech industry being particularly impacted by these tariffs, it was no surprise that people rushed to get new electronics before the prices went up.
But in what has come as some relief for consumers and tech companies, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced exemptions in tariffs for multiple categories of products, including electronics like smartphones and computers, coming from China. Some other products that will be exempt are flash drives, memory cards, SSDs, solar panels, semiconductors, and television displays. The exemptions apply to products that have left warehouses on or after 12:01 AM (ET), April 5, 2025 (via CNBC).
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The CBP published a list of 20 exempted tariff codes over the weekend. While it’s hard to determine what category each tariff code belongs to, you can cross-check them with the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) database here. For instance, tariff code 8517.13.00 refers to smartphones, while 8486 applies to machines used “for the manufacture of semiconductor boules or wafers, semiconductor devices, electronic integrated circuits or flat panel displays.”
Brands like Google and Samsung are unaffected
Phones from brands like Google and Samsung have moved the bulk of their production out of China to neighboring countries, including but not limited to Vietnam and India, so they weren’t expected to be impacted much by the tariff dispute. Samsung said last week that its TV business would be unaffected by the sweeping tariffs against China since most televisions sold in the US are made in Mexico.
But the steep tariffs would have caused significant concern for brands like Apple and OnePlus, which still rely heavily on China for production. According to CNBC, over half of Apple’s computers come from China, while roughly 80% of the iPads are also made in the region.
These newly announced exemptions will effectively remove the 125% tariff on Chinese goods for the 20 product categories listed by the CBP, as well as the 10% tariff that’s applied to goods imported from other nations. However, a separate 20% tariff will continue to apply to all Chinese goods, as CNBC notes.
UPDATE: 2025/04/13 21:06 EST BY CHETHAN RAO
Commerce Secretary Lutnick says the tariff exemptions are temporary
Speaking to Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week” hours ago, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the CBP’s earlier guidance to exempt certain categories of electronics from tariffs is only temporary.
“All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they’re going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored. We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels — we need to have these things made in America. We can’t be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us,” Lutnick said.
