A set of numbers were designated as exempt from the 125% tax on products entering the US from China in a US customs message note that was surreptitiously leaked early Saturday morning. The code “8517.13.00.00” denotes cellphones in the US customs list, although it has virtually little meaning elsewhere.
Because it was included with other electronic products and components, including semiconductors, solar cells, and memory cards, the top-valued Chinese export to the United States from the previous year was free from import duties.
This was a startling reversal given that only a few days prior, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had said that bringing iPhone manufacturing back to the US was one of the goals of raising tariffs on China. Without first mentioning it publicly, the US has now removed the largest Chinese export—and undoubtedly the most well-known final product—from tariffs.
Most American Apple outlets would have begun to see the effects of the 125% tariffs on Apple’s Zhengzhou manufacturing site in eastern China within a few weeks. It would have served as a totemic “sticker shock” to the turbulent tariff campaign by the White House. According to Counterpoint, a worldwide technology market research group, up to 80% of Apple’s iphones intended for US sale are manufactured in China.
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