Americans set to pay more on all imports: Trump activates blanket tariffs
- Reference: 1743635343
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/02/us_tariffs_liberation_day_announcement/
- Source link:
At an event he named “Liberation Day” Wednesday, Trump declared a national emergency on the grounds that the practices of America’s trading partners “constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States.”
The sole example of technology industry practices cited in the Trump administration’s [1]fact sheet and [2]executive order is India charging a ten percent duty on imported American switches and routers, while the USA charges no duty on such networking devices entering its land.
[3]
The ten percent blanket tariff comes into force on April 5.
[4]
[5]
Four days later, the US will impose “reciprocal tariffs” – levies in response to other countries’ import duties – on many nations. These retaliatory fees, outlined in a [6]list published on the White House’s X account, target several countries known to host significant tech manufacturing industries.
Among major hardware-producing nations, Thailand and Malaysia will be hit with the highest import tariffs - 36 percent - ahead of China at an additional 34 percent and Taiwan at 32 percent.
[7]
Indian imports will cost 26 percent more once they reach the USA, a blow to its ambition to become a global tech manufacturing player. Another aspiring tech player, Vietnam, faces 46 percent tariffs.
Taiwanese imports will cost 25 percent more by the time they reach US buyers, as will kit from South Korea. Japan and Thailand each face 24 percent tariffs.
Even Israel, one of the USA’s staunchest allies, will face a 17 percent tariff. Everything imported from the European Union will be subject to a 20 percent tariff.
[8]Political poker? Tariff hunger games? Trump creates havoc for PC industry
[9]Trump's tariff threats could bump PC prices by almost half
[10]HPE revenue outlook feels the thump of Trump tariffs
[11]India ditches its 'Google Tax', perhaps to tickle Trump and dodge tariffs
[12]Microsoft tastes the unexpected consequences of tariffs on time
One apparent goal of these levies is to encourage manufacturers to make more gear in America so as to avoid these import fees. What's made in the USA will thus be more competitively priced than shipped-in tariff-hit foreign components and products, so buying American costs less in the nation all while lowering revenues for overseas suppliers.
Hence why [13]Apple and [14]others have pledged to invest in factories in the United States.
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It's hard to imagine these tariffs won't, at least in the short-to-mid-term, result in price rises for folks and businesses in America, however, because importers pay the tariffs and will likely protect their profits by passing on the increased costs to buyers in the States. Manufacturers need time to either shift production to stateside factories or build new facilities, all of which involves cost.
The alternative is that businesses bringing products into the US take a hit to their profit margins by absorbing the tariffs.
If you are in the US, prepare to pay more for foreign-built parts and stuff for now, we reckon. Intel, Apple, and Samsung manufacture in Vietnam. Many hard disk drives are made in Thailand. Dell makes laptops in Malaysia. iPhones are now made in India as well as China.
In some good news for Taiwan, a powerhouse of manufacturing thanks to the likes of TSMC, the White House signalled that semiconductors will be exempt from reciprocal tariffs. However, President Trump has previously [16]warned of 100 percent tariffs on imported chips.
This is a developing story as the administration is yet to publish detailed documentation of its tariff plans, so we can't assess what tariff would apply to a device that includes components made in Taiwan and Vietnam, before being partly assembled in South Korea and completed in the USA. The Register will update this story if more useful material becomes available. ®
Boo-note
At time of writing, in after-hours trading already: Apple shares down 7 percent, Amazon down 6, Meta down 5, Nvidia down 5, Microsoft down 3, Alphabet down 4, Cisco down 3, IBM down 2, HPE down 4, HP Inc down 5, Intel down 4, AMD down 5, Arm down 5, Qualcomm down 3, TSMC down 5, Dell down 6...
PS: 'De minimis' exemptions for imported packages under $800 from China and Hong Kong [17]will end on May 2 , affecting Temu, Shein, and similar internet souks.
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-declares-national-emergency-to-increase-our-competitive-edge-protect-our-sovereignty-and-strengthen-our-national-and-economic-security/
[2] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regulating-imports-with-a-reciprocal-tariff-to-rectify-trade-practices-that-contribute-to-large-and-persistent-annual-united-states-goods-trade-deficits/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z-4H4Vs9Y8CBTdjUR5ji_wAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-4H4Vs9Y8CBTdjUR5ji_wAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z-4H4Vs9Y8CBTdjUR5ji_wAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1907533090559324204
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-4H4Vs9Y8CBTdjUR5ji_wAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/19/tariffs_tech_channel_uncertainty/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/02/trump_tariff_pc_prices/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/07/hpe_q1_2025/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/26/india_drops_digital_ads_tax/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/microsoft_opinion/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/24/apple_us_manufacturing/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/04/tsmc_trump_arizona_investment/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z-4H4Vs9Y8CBTdjUR5ji_wAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/28/trump_tariffs_semiconductors/
[17] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-02/de-minimis-tariff-loophole-that-aided-temu-shein-to-close-may-2
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
don't pay attention to it
Unless you can touch it or you can you know feel it
Especially on these shores. Fuck America
Europe is alright. Nice food weather and pretty women. A lot closer too.
How is it fair that citizens in other countries must pay substantially higher tariffs imposed by their governments, making imported goods more expensive, while Americans face little to no tariffs on many imports? The world’s “richest” country benefits from cheaper foreign products, yet others must pay a premium.
Wouldn’t raising U.S. tariffs encourage other countries to negotiate and lower theirs in response, leading to more balanced trade and making imported goods more affordable for everyone?
To complain about the US raising tariffs but not discuss what other countries citizens have to deal with is the most privileged and spoiled disconnected American perspective …
So you think dementia don is adding tariffs to make things better for other countries?
No, he's just a moron and doesn't understand how anything works. He's going to make things worse for everyone, but especially for Americans.
If his move is a negotiating tactic, whereby other countries then come to the table and drop their already-existing tariffs on US goods in exchange for Trump dropping these tariffs then it's better for US businesses selling overseas. If you look at what was happening with Canadian and Mexican tariffs earlier it could be the case.
So the glass-half-full view could be that this is a short-term measure to prompt trade deals where the US had the whip hand. The half empty view being that Trump really thinks the US can ever be cost-competitive with developing countries and import tax his way to prosperity...
He doesn't actually have the intelligence to work "tactically". What you see is what you get. In IT talk, this administration is JBOD - Just a Bunch Of Dunces.
Trump is easy to model
Trump is a moron who has no idea how *anything* more complex than a box of cracker jack is manufactured. He's living in a past, or even never-existing world where only Americans have money to buy things, and everything is produced here.
It goes without saying that he also has no clue how automated modern factories are, and that the 'golden age' of manufacturing that lives in his head is never coming back.
And apparently his method of computing the average tariff a country is imposing is to take the trade deficit with the US divided by exports to the US. Which of course isn't a tariff. They might as well have divided the age of the Prime Minister by the average zip code in the country, or any other nonsensical computation.
Well, he was right about
> unusual and extraordinary threat to the .. economy of the United States
Just look at all those share prices tumbling!
If only he could figure out why*, each time he "does something to make it all better", the numbers get worse...
* (It must be the Chinese, they are known to be devilishly cunning)
Re: Well, he was right about
"If only he could figure out why"
You must be referring to someone else - Trump doesn't 'do' thinking.
Re: Well, he was right about
Good point. And it seems to me that these import tariffs may end up having some of the same effects as a carbon tax , which they'd never ever have wanted to put in place: higher cost of living in the US, lowering of long-range-transport GHG emissions through reduced volume of goods imported into the US.
If the money raised by these import tariffs could be invested in climate change mitigation and prevention efforts (rather than free dildos for the rich) then we could have a real winner!
Re: Well, he was right about
Just look at all those share prices tumbling!
Obviously our wonderful Stock Market is being manipulated by LEFT-WING DEMOCRAT AMERICA-HATING IMMIGANTS.
From the "fact sheet", singling out Blighty
> The UK maintains non-science-based standards that severely restrict U.S. exports of safe, high-quality beef and poultry products.
Not in the least; if we were actually offered high-quality beef (without excessive levels of hormones) or poultry products that were properly prepared (instead of damaging eggs so that they go off if you don't keep them refrigerated) then we would happily accept them.
But it looks like the USA really wants to keep all its safe, high-quality products to itself, and just offer the rest of the World its dregs. No thanks.
(Similarly, why would Argentina take in US beef? There is a reason the US imports tasty cows from the Argentine...)
(And the tirade against Japan, which boils down to US car makers can't be fagged to meet their higher standards...)
Stupidity
Has real consequences
Behold.
Re: Stupidity
Bummer indeed! Expecting the promised [1]200% tariffs on wine and liquors from Europe, I ordered me pallets full of [2]Andres Baby Duck and Brights [3]President Grande Réserve Canadian Champagne . Whatta my to do with this junk now?!?!
Make up your donut mind Orange Donald, puleaze!
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c984pnedd6do
[2] https://www.lcbo.com/en/andr-rs-baby-duck-1123
[3] https://www.vivino.com/US/en/brights-president-grande-reserve-canadian-champagne/w/2075436
How 'bout that!
No tariffs for Russia, I noticed.
Remember: the suicidally stupid segment of the American population voted for mass inflation - blame them; Trump can't help being a moron, but people shouldn't have encouraged him.
They were all blinded by their hatred, racism and entitlement. It's not like Donald didn't tell them in advance most of what he actually did then, and he even plain out told them that he doesn't need them, just their votes. And they still voted for him, because they wanted more that other people ("liberals", people of different color, people from different countries, people with different xual preferences, etc) to suffer, than to follow their own financial, democratic, etc. interests.
I also blame everyone who didn't vote.
Oh dear....
...as we're supplying very specialised parts in the UK to a certain US car company, because no one in the states can actually make it. Well, they're fucked even more.
Sure a US company can do it, just got to invest a few million dollars in equipment. Should get their money back in a decade or so.
I feel liberated already...
In the mean time, I'm sure this mercurial administration will provide loads of certainty to businesses who want to re-shore or rebuild American manufacturing in such areas as garments, plastic toys, and topical fruit.
Mine's the one with a copy of Peddling Protectionism in the left pocket