Trump spares smartphones, computers, other electronics from China tariffs

[jerrymahoney]

WASHINGTON/WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, April 12 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration granted exclusions from steep reciprocal tariffs to smartphones, computers and some other electronics imported largely from China, providing a big break to tech companies like Apple that rely on imported products.

 

The U.S. CBP listed 20 product categories, including the 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.

 

Trump's action also excludes the specified electronics from his 10% "baseline" tariffs on goods from most countries other than China, easing import costs for semiconductors from Taiwan and Apple iPhones produced in India.

 

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us-excludes-smartphones-computers-reciprocal-tariffs-2025-04-12/

 

OR

 

You put your right foot in
You put your right foot out
You put your right foot in
And you shake it all about
You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about!

[blaze master]

 I know a lot of liberals who will be happy about the iPhone news.

 

Hashtag not a single mobile phone is manufactured in USA anymore. 

[jerrymahoney]

Song from 1963 courtesy Frank Sinatra:

Call me irresponsible
Call me unreliable
Throw in undependable too
Do my foolish alibis
Bother you?

Call me unpredictable
Tell me I'm impractical
Rainbows I'm inclined to pursue

[NanLaew]

9 minutes ago, blaze master said:

 I know a lot of liberals who will be happy about the iPhone news.

 

Hashtag not a single mobile phone is manufactured in USA anymore. 

 

Yes, but didn't Trump say there was absolutely nothing essential to daily life in the USA that needed to be imported?

[blaze master]

4 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

Yes, but didn't Trump say there was absolutely nothing essential to daily life in the USA that needed to be imported?

 

He probably did say that. And ?

[jas007]

If you exempt phones, computers, computer parts, and flat screen TV panels, what's left? Barbie dolls? 

 

I'm exaggerating a bit, but most of the other stuff can be obtained elsewhere.  For example, I've got some KEF speakers that were designed elsewhere but manufactured in China.  Could they make them somewhere else? Sure?  Do I even need to buy KEF speakers?  No..  Ditto for other kinds of audio equipment, much of when seems to be built in China these days.  

[NanLaew]

1 minute ago, blaze master said:

 

He probably did say that. And ?

 

Well he's right, isn't he?

[blaze master]

Just now, NanLaew said:

 

Well he's right, isn't he?

 

Right about what ? Make your point. 

[Cryingdick]

And people wonder why big tech sucks up to him? He obviously isn't going to cripple Apple and Google. 

[TedG]

This is good news.    But, the POUTS should not have the power to enact tariffs. 

[Cryingdick]

6 minutes ago, TedG said:

This is good news.    But, the POUTS should have the power to enact tariffs. 

The POTUS does have the power to do that.

[TedG]

9 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

The POTUS does have the power to do that.

Opps, I met to say.  Should not.   

[jerrymahoney]

Current POTUS only has the power to enact tariffs because he declared a bogus wartime Emergency. And even the bogus emergency doesn't give him the power to enact tariffs -- it only specifies embargoes.

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Declares National Emergency to Increase our Competitive Edge, Protect our Sovereignty, and Strengthen our National and Economic Security
The White House
April 2, 2025

Using his IEEPA authority, President Trump will impose a 10% tariff on all countries.
This will take effect April 5, 2025 at 12:01 a.m. EDT.

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, blaze master said:

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

 

Well he's right, isn't he?

 

Right about what ? Make your point. 

 

 

Is he right when he claims there's absolutely nothing essential to daily life in the USA that needs to be imported?

[PomPolo]

That's kind of him assuming China still want to do business with him at all!

[blaze master]

3 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

 

Is he right when he claims there's absolutely nothing essential to daily life in the USA that needs to be imported?

 

I don't care.

[JimHuaHin]

Surprised not.

 

It has obviously taken some time for Trump's Silicon Valley billionaire friends to convince him of the adverse impact of his tariffs on their global business empires.

[NanLaew]

3 minutes ago, blaze master said:

 

I don't care.

 

Oh...

 

2 hours ago, blaze master said:

 I know a lot of liberals who will be happy about the iPhone news.

 

Hashtag not a single mobile phone is manufactured in USA anymore. 

 

Right...

 

Me neither.

 

[blaze master]

Just now, NanLaew said:

 

Oh...

 

 

Right...

 

 

Amazing.

[faraday]

22 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

 

Is he right when he claims there's absolutely nothing essential to daily life in the USA that needs to be imported?

Probably.

But, the cost of production would drastically increase the price of electronic goods.

 

Hence his U turn.

 

 

[placeholder]

18 minutes ago, blaze master said:

 

I don't care.

 

15 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

Oh...

 

 

Right...

 

Me neither.

 

Thank you both for sharing your feelings with us. Still, this forum is supposed to be about political issues, not our feelings or lack of them. I suggest you look for other venues on aseannow.com where this kind of sharing is more appropriate. Good luck in your journeys!

[Tug]

2 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

Song from 1963 courtesy Frank Sinatra:

Call me irresponsible
Call me unreliable
Throw in undependable too
Do my foolish alibis
Bother you?

Call me unpredictable
Tell me I'm impractical
Rainbows I'm inclined to pursue

Gawd Jerry stop it I didn’t know ya had it in ya lmao 🤣 pretty pathetic on old trumps part what a train wreck of a president anyway thanks for the humor in these fraught times.

[blaze master]

19 minutes ago, placeholder said:

 

Thank you both for sharing your feelings with us. Still, this forum is supposed to be about political issues, not our feelings or lack of them. I suggest you look for other venues on aseannow.com where this kind of sharing is more appropriate. Good luck in your journeys!

 

And I suggest you don't tell others what to share. 

 

[placeholder]

1 minute ago, blaze master said:

 

And I suggest you don't tell others what to share. 

 

I offer you a friendly suggestion and this is the kind of response I get? I would share my feeling about this but that wouldn't be appropriate.

[BritManToo]

24 minutes ago, placeholder said:

 

Thank you both for sharing your feelings with us. Still, this forum is supposed to be about political issues, not our feelings or lack of them. I suggest you look for other venues on aseannow.com where this kind of sharing is more appropriate. Good luck in your journeys!

I thought this forum was a place for the trolls and nutters to fight each other without bothering the legit forum members.

[mfd101]

The man-child is learning that temper tantrums don't usually go down well with Mumsie.

[blaze master]

3 minutes ago, placeholder said:

I offer you a friendly suggestion and this is the kind of response I get? I would share my feeling about this but that wouldn't be appropriate.

 

It's the response you deserve. Nice attempt at being coy. Stick to posting about trump.

[placeholder]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I thought this forum was a place for the trolls and nutters to fight each other without bothering the legit forum members.

When you've got nothing, make it personal. You've got nothing.

[BKKKevin]

China just sees a paper tiger... 

[jas007]

40 minutes ago, JimHuaHin said:

Surprised not.

 

It has obviously taken some time for Trump's Silicon Valley billionaire friends to convince him of the adverse impact of his tariffs on their global business empires.

I'm not sure about Trump's billionaire friends from Silicon Valley, but  clearly the Western Financial system was about to crack, and when that goes down, everything goes down. Globalism didn't start overnight. Global supply chains didn't evolve overnight. And the "everything" bubble developed over a period of many years and decades.  Undoing it all is almost if not totally impossible over the short term.   

 

When did Nixon go to China?  Sometime in the early 70s, I think.  Globalism and the New World Order?  Nixon's advisor: Henry Kissinger.  In any event the multinational corporations took the ball and ran with it.  They lined their pockets with the fruits of cheap overseas labor.  No one considered the long term consequences, and certain economists touted the resulting "benefits" as beneficial to all involved.  "Free Trade."  

 

Unfortunately, no one seems to have considered the fact that the system would be hijacked by thieves and fraudsters.  They lined their pockets with kickback money, bankrupted America, and gutted the American industrial base and the American middle class in the process.  The system continues to function , although one day it will crack. 

 

When is the collapse?  No one knows, but hopefully we have some time.  And hopefully, some of what Trump wants to do will at least slow down the decay.