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New Trump Tariffs Won't Include Fitness Trackers Or the Apple Watch (theverge.com)
According to Bloomberg, the next round of China tariffs won't include devices that receive and transmit voice data, a category that includes the Apple Watch, Fitbits, Sonos Speakers, and a host of other fitness trackers and home assistants. The Verge reports: The White House recently backed down on the rate at which the imports would be taxed. Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that listed goods would likely be taxed at only 10 percent. As recently as August, President Trump had considered setting the rate at 25 percent. Customs documents describe the category in vague terms, listing the devices as "machines for the reception, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice, images or other data." But that vague category has come to encompass a wide range of personal tech, including fitness trackers and personal voice assistants. The Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, BeatsWL, AirPort, and Time Capsule all fall under the code, according to a letter submitted by Apple to the U.S. Trade Representative. Other categories of Apple products will still be affected by the tariff, including adapters, the Mac mini, and any circuit boards or internal components shipped individually to the United States.
and pass the MAGA
The orange idiot rages on
Enjoy your inflation, Trumpanzees
No tariffs on any technology that can be used to spy on Americans. Hmm.... Nope, that's not suspicious at all!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I just think it's great that the american taxpayer can foot the bill for an objective idiot to play out his mercantilist fantasies in advance of his pending resignation/removal from office. More dumbass bullshit, just like with his trillion dollar welfare check to the 1%.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is what he and his followers all have.
No, nearly everyone loses the war of tariffs. This is a race to the top in how much to tax one's own citizens.
Oh wait, the rest of the world kept hearing "USA First" from Trump...... problem is the rest of the world said FU and said "USA last", so Trump has managed to piss off the 96% of the worlds population that does not live in the USA.
China on the other hand has been negotiating and signing trade agreements with the rest of the world, while Humpty Trumpty has been tearing them up.
Do phones fall in this category? Seems like a huge detail was left out of summary.
The tariffs are >20% of the value of the product. A cheap mic is a few cents. Do the math.
"he US economy is quite strong now"
That's the $1.2-1.5 trillion borrowing for the tax cuts, it's worth about 8-10% of GDP growth which they'll probably time in the quarters before elections (i.e. you'll get another hit in Q3 2018).
"China's is fairly weak"
China has a trade surplus with most of the world, and will continue to trade with most of the world.
"They need to sell their crap to the US way more than we need to buy it"
Normally I'd agree, but Trump started trade wars with EU, NAFTA countries and USA needs *some* market *somewhere*. It can only inflate the economy for so long without trade to prop it up. No trade, no $$$ propup, dollar falls, inflation is worthless money printing, welcome to 2007.
That Mexico 'deal' Trump made is terrible, 75% minimum NAFTA manufacturing to qualify as trade free. Which favors low cost labor Mexico and stops US companies manufacturing in China, finishing in USA, and exporting to Mexico. So US companies will get hit with tarrifs in the short term and in the long term will move jobs to Mexico to cut costs.
I see the 'adults in charge' op-ed, but they can't stop the random acts of Trump.
Tarriffs affecting Cell phones... don't impact Apple so much, as their product is already the most expensive.
On the other hand: the impact on Chinese eBay sellers selling competitive alternatives at super-low rates and cheaper Android phones may be enormous --- this may put them out of business (By causing a high burden to compliance.... consumers buy something on eBay from overseas, and will start suddenly finding out that your orders going to be held by customs --- that might be a 2 to 5% then you have to pay that duty plus an extra $50 or more in extra handling, processing and storage fees that were incurred when your item was found to require being held) resulting in less competition against larger retailers and manufacturers.