Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

Posted by tosh 4/12/2025

Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs(www.bloomberg.com)

408 points | 884 commentspage 3

ajross 4/12/2025|

Pointed it out in the other thread, but this is a capitulation. China imposed retaliatory tariffs that remain in effect! There are a handful of businesses that do indeed export to China, and the net effect here is that they've all been thrown under the bus. China gets to kill/pick/control them at will now.

dave4420 4/12/2025|

How will China react to this, I wonder.

marcosdumay 4/12/2025|||

As a result of that, they got into some really successful negotiations with a lot of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and America. I think they want to keep the subject on the news for as long as possible.

And then I imagine they'll probably silently drop the tariffs, because those are harmful for them.

ajross 4/12/2025||||

The horrifying thing is that they don't have to. They hold all the cards now. They can drop their new trade barriers at will. Maybe they'll ask for concessions. Maybe they'll leave them in place to kill off troublesome competitors. Maybe they'll coerce the affected companies into selling to Chinese-owned interests at a steep discount. Maybe they'll just take a bunch of bribes.

This is how a trade war looks. And we're losing. Badly.

foobarian 4/12/2025||

> They hold all the cards now

What do you mean "now?" With the amount of trade imbalance they had the ability to simply block exports at any time. It perhaps only works once but it's a very powerful lever.

pests 4/12/2025||

Isn’t that the lever that we pulled on ourselves?

seanmcdirmid 4/12/2025||||

They will either ignore it or double down with an export tax on items in that class.

est 4/12/2025|||

China waits paitiently for the big BOOM of US treasury bond in June.

Havoc 4/12/2025||

And in ~24hr policy will zigzag again

It's not like businesses need to plan or anything so this is great

wraaath 4/12/2025||

Here's the set of categories exempted from the tariffs (via perplexity) Original source: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCBP/bulletins/... Backup: https://archive.is/el9Mz

via Perplexity:

8471: Automatic data-processing machines and units thereof, including computers, laptops, disc drives, and other data processing equipment.

8473.30: Parts and accessories for automatic data-processing machines, such as components used in computers.

8486: Machines and apparatus for the manufacture of semiconductor devices or electronic integrated circuits.

8517.13.00: Mobile phones (cellular telephones) or other wireless network devices.

8517.62.00: Communication apparatus capable of connecting to a network, such as routers and modems.

8523.51.00: Solid-state storage devices (e.g., flash drives) used for recording data.

8524: Recorded media, such as DVDs, CDs, and other optical discs.

8528.52.00: Flat-panel displays capable of video playback, including monitors and televisions.

8541.10.00: Diodes, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

8541.21.00: Transistors with a dissipation rate of less than 1 watt.

8541.29.00: Other transistors not specified elsewhere.

8541.30.00: Thyristors, diacs, and triacs used in electronics.

8541.49.10 to 8541.49.95: Semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits (ICs) categorized by specific types or functions.

8541.51.00: Semiconductor devices designed for photovoltaic applications (solar cells).

8541.59.00: Other semiconductor devices not elsewhere classified.

8541.90.00: Parts of semiconductor devices or electronic integrated circuits.

8542: Electronic integrated circuits, including microprocessors and memory chips.

jccalhoun 4/13/2025||

I'm not economist. Maybe tariffs could work. (It seems like most of the experts say they don't. And how they were determined certainly seems especially dumb) However, it doesn't take a genius to see that enacting them without advance notice to prepare for them is the worst way to do it. Give companies time to prepare. Give countries time to negotiate. The result would be the same without the uncertainty and chaos. Unless this really is some plan for the rich to short stocks and make a killing in the market, I don't see how this implementation would be a good idea to anyone.

seanmcdirmid 4/12/2025||

He definitely blinked. Also illegal immigrants who work in hotels and on farms won’t be deported. Weird.

inverted_flag 4/12/2025||

I’ve noticed that the pro-trump posters have been quiet on this site recently, pretty funny.

fells 4/12/2025|

Because, in reality, they voted for his regressive cultural policies, not his regressive economic policies.

Though in November I'm sure they were telling us how good he would be on the economic front.

add-sub-mul-div 4/12/2025||

It's funny, (well, not funny) because the social issues are the ones where the toothpaste doesn't go back in the bottle. Progress over the long run only goes in the right direction, there's no path to undoing broad acceptance of homosexuality just like we'll never go back to forbidding interracial marriage or women voting.

So the top 1% will benefit economically from the right being in power, but the rest will spend the rest of their lives mad about whatever the current social change is, regardless of who's in power.

fknorangesite 4/13/2025|||

> Progress over the long run only goes in the right direction, there's no path to undoing broad acceptance of homosexuality just like we'll never go back to forbidding interracial marriage or women voting.

This is remarkably naive. I wish you were right, but this sentiment isn't optimism; it's complacency.

SpicyLemonZest 4/12/2025||||

Progress seems to only go in the right direction on social issues, because people are very good at developing reasons why the social views they happen to hold are the objectively correct ones. As any advocate will talk your ears off about, open borders used to be the consensus position, until 150 years of immigration restrictions convinced people that it's not realistic to just let anyone move wherever they'd like.

kunzhi 4/13/2025||||

This is 100% false and naive. History is profoundly reversible. There is no such thing as guaranteed progress.

So-called "acceptance" of homosexuality is a very recent phenomenon but in no way mainstream. Even in the liberal progressive Bay Area you can get gay bashed quite easily (including in the Castro!).

Voting rights for women? Basically just turned 100 years old in the United States and already in the process of getting rolled back via the SAVE act.

Don't assume that any of the liberal trends we've seen in the last 150 years are here to stay. America is an interesting historical exception and anomaly -- by no means how humanity has done business for the majority of its existence.

tines 4/13/2025|||

Iran would like a word.

chvid 4/12/2025||

What imports of size from China are then under full tariffs?

Seems silly just to mess up a few toy importers.

SonOfKyuss 4/12/2025||

Auto parts come to mind. Also there are plenty of products on shelves at big box retailers like Walmart that are made in China and won’t fall into the exempted categories.

stafferxrr 4/13/2025|||

It is a huge amount of various goods. So much so that even if you look up a breakdown, 25% will be in other. Chemicals, base metals, stone, glass, etc etc.

What doesn't China export? Basically everything. So everything minus these exemptions.

ojbyrne 4/12/2025|||

Auto parts, but also autos.

hu3 4/12/2025|||

So Tesla gets a handwave against world conquering BYDs.

relyks 4/13/2025|||

Clothing. A lot of apparel and accessory retailers have significant portions of their items produced in China.

vkou 4/13/2025||

I'm sure middle-class Americans will be lining up around the blocks to take $3/hr sweatshop jobs to sew t-shirts for China.

Maybe not the manufacturing that they were hoping for...

t-writescode 4/13/2025|||

Board games; medium-tier manufacturing; non-computer, intermediate parts manufacture

greatgib 4/13/2025||

Sextoys...

emsign 4/13/2025||

The question that is in everybody's head: How long until he changes his mind on that too?

aoeusnth1 4/12/2025||

One of the most surprising things about this announcement is that it didn't happen during business hours where the insiders could buy call options before hand.

dyauspitr 4/12/2025|

Insiders already bought call before market close on the previous day.

Taniwha 4/13/2025|

I manufacture a small open source product in China, I also warehouse there (because shipping is so much cheaper). About 1/3 of my customers live in the US, other customers live in countries that charge tariffs, they have to deal with local customs or post offices to pay what they owe, it's not something that's really an issue for me (except for occasionally helping people track down missing packages).

Currently shipping out of China seems disrupted, more because the shipping companies are leary about getting stuck with the tariffs, the US doesn't have the infrastructure to collect them, Post Offices don't have the bandwidth, people can't take time off work etc etc - that may change, but it's not something that can change overnight

Trump's exemption for computer stuff will likely mean that my packages will eventually sail through, but I'm about to do another build, China's reciprocal tariffs will affect my cost of parts and it's a bit unfair making my non-US customers pay for this silly pointless trade war, since the silliness changes every day I think I;m just going to wait this out for a month or two

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