Just before the weekend, the US Customs and Border Protection released a list of products temporarily exempt from tariffs. This includes smartphones, PCs, memory chips, and essentially 80 percent of the tech gadgets we love. 😊
However, this isn’t a permanent reprieve. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick clarified that these products will soon fall under the semiconductor sectoral tariffs. “Those products are going to be part of the semiconductor sectoral tariffs, which are coming,” Lutnick mentioned in a recent interview.
The temporary exclusions mean many devices and parts won’t face the 10 percent global tariff or the higher China-specific tariff—for now. Lutnick explained that this move ensures these products are considered separately from reciprocal tariffs. But don’t get too comfortable; semiconductor tariffs are expected in “probably a month or two.” Time to rethink that Switch 2 pre-order?
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