Tim Cook and Donal Trump in 2019 — image credit: White House
Despite scaremongering headlines, Trump did not escalate his “reciprocal” China tariff to 245% on Tuesday night. The figure is a reinstatement of previous tariffs that don’t apply to Apple or big tech at all.
Coming on top of previous escalations and the Apple exemption that Trump says isn’t an exemption, it wouldn’t have been surprising if the China tariff rose again. And the White House itself stoked fear-mongering by how it phrased the tariffs in a fact sheet issued late on Tuesday night, April 15, 2025.
“China now faces up to a 245% tariff on imports to the United States,” says the fact sheet, “as a result of its retaliatory actions.”
However, the 245% tariff is the maximum applied out of an enormous range of tariffs against US firms importing from China. It includes, for example, a long-standing 20% tariff on goods that include Fentanyl, which no Apple products do.
There is a pre-2025 tariff of 100% on items such as syringes and needles, which was in place before the omnibus tariff announcement earlier in April. Other goods, including clothing and solar panels, are subject to a tariff that ranges from 7% to 100%.
So it is true that some firms are facing having to pay two and a half times the cost of goods they import from China, it is not the blanket escalation made on Monday that it is being made out to be.
The tariff situation is fluid, and confusing sometimes
Trump initially set a tariff of 104% on China, then raised it to 125% after China responded by imposing its own tariffs on US imports. As often with the tariffs, Trump later clarified that the amount was actually 145%.
At the time, China said that Trump’s tariffs were bullying, but said it would not raise its own tariffs beyond its initial retaliatory 125%.
According to China Daily, China’s Foreign Minister Lin Jian told journalists they should ask Trump about the rise. “You can take this number to the US side for an answer,” he said.
But Lin also said that there are no winners in tariff and trade wars. “China is not willing to fight [such a war], nor is it afraid of fighting,” he continued.
It’s not clear if or when Apple and Trump will talk
Trump has repeatedly said that China should do what he claims other countries have done, and ask for negotiations.
“If the US genuinely wants to solve the problem through dialogue and negotiation,” said Lin, “it should give up its approach of imposing extreme pressure, stop threatening and blackmailing, and engage in dialogue with the Chinese side on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit.”
Alongside the Apple exemption, Trump also paused all tariffs on April 9, 2025 — except for China. While Apple is currently escaping those China tariffs, Trump also announced a spurious probe into the national security implications of semiconductor usage.
While that investigation is officially ongoing and won’t report until after it hears submissions from interested parties, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has already prejudged the probe and said that semiconductor tariffs will be coming.