As reported by The Guardian, The Trump administration has announced, through the United States Customs and Border Patrol, that smartphones, computers, and other electronic devices/components will be exempt from the US’s chaotic and destabilizing new tariff regime. That even includes the steepest 125% tariffs on China.
I’ve lost track whether we’re doing the tariffs, not doing the tariffs, kind of doing the tariffs, or only doing the tariffs on China, and Mr. Market seems similarly confused: He’s mostly been sad lately, but also had some real pep in his step at other points. We’re either headed for The Great Depression 2, or feelin’ fine, depending on who you ask and when.
The reasoning behind the tariffs similarly depends on who you’re talking to. “Normal” conservatives will say it’s Art of the Deal Madman Theory to prove that the US means business in trade negotiations with the rest of the world. More “esoteric” or “avant-garde” right wingers say it’s in the name of transitioning the US back into a manufacturing economy, a sort of “reindustrialization” that has never been implemented in world history. Countries have industrialized, but never transitioned away and then back again, much less the unprecedentedly wealthy consumer economy at the center of the global financial system.
Wedbush Securities global head of technology research Dan Ives told CNBC that it would cost Apple an estimated $30 billion over the course of three years just to move 10% of its supply chain from Asia to the US with a “major disruption.” The Guardian reported earlier how investment bank UBS estimated this might look on the ground: A 79% increase (about $1,000) in the price of an iPhone 16 Pro Max, as one example.
That “category five price storm,” in the words of Ives, is likely the primary motivation behind this new, semi truck-sized hole in America’s tariff armor, though I’m sure panicked tech CEOs have been lobbying their hearts out to mitigate things as well.
We’re firmly back in “only kind of doing the tariffs” territory, then, but it’s unclear how all of this will trickle down to us gamers—won’t somebody think of the gamers! US preorders for the Nintendo Switch 2 have been on ice pending any tariff-related increase of its $450 MSRP, while I’ve been sweating how this might impact the RX 9070 XT graphics card purchase I’ve been weighing.
Buying a GPU was already excruciating thanks to shortages, scalpers, and manufacturing partners (like MSI or Gigabyte) really stretching the “suggested” part of “Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.” In the worst case scenario of the new Trumpenomics, at least a good mid-range card can last you a lot longer than it used to—I could definitely ride out my RTX 3070 another few generations if RX 9070s and 5070s start commanding $2,000 a pop out of nowhere.
