The United States says some key tech products, like smartphones, computers, and chip-making equipment, will be exempt from President Donald Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs.
US Customs and Border Protection published the list of exemptions late Friday night. The guidance appears to exempt the products from Trump’s baseline 10% tariff rate, which applies to most countries, as well as the 145% tariff specific to China.
It’s welcome news to the tech industry. The exemptions came after a wild week in global financial markets. The intensifying trade war between the United States and China sowed chaos in both the stock and bond markets.
While many tech giants have deep ties to China, Apple, in particular, is fully enmeshed in the country, where it has spent years building up the supply chain for its iPhones.
In a post on X, Wall Street analyst Dan Ives called the exemptions “dream news” for the sector.
“US Big Tech spoke and the White House made the right move at the right time. Massive relief for market and tech stocks into Sunday night,” the Wedbush Securities managing director wrote.
Tech investor Matt Turck, a partner at the venture capital firm FirstMark Capital, told Business Insider that the “exemptions come as a major relief to the tech and AI industry.”
He added that “they’re the sensical thing to do in an otherwise completely nonsensical series of decisions. This has been an embarrassing week for America.”
The tech industry might not be entirely in the clear just yet. The White House told BI in an email that Trump still intended to issue tariffs on certain tech products in the future.
He also plans to issue a section 232 study, an investigation into the impact of imports on national security, on semiconductors, which could determine whether the key technology is subject to tariffs, too.
“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told BI by email. “That’s why the President has secured trillions of dollars in US investments from the largest tech companies in the world, including Apple, TSMC, and Nvidia. At the direction of the President, these companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”
