And so it continues. First it was the bond markets which forced him to change his tune. Now the titans of tech have delivered a dose of realism to Trump.
Smartphones and computers are now exempt from the 125% US tariffs on Chinese goods, the US Customs and Border Patrol said late on Friday.
The eye-watering levy, which had been applied on top of long-standing duties, will now not affect memory cards, solar cells or semiconductors – to minimise the impact on American consumers.
As much as 80% of Apple’s iPhones for the US market are made in China, with the remaining 20% made in India.
In addition to the far larger import levy on Chinese goods, tech gadgetry including smartphones from other countries will also be exempt from Trump’s 10% global tariff which applies to just about every other nation in the world, unless otherwise stated – and subject of course to screeching U-turns delivered via X or Truth Social at any hour of the day or night.
The good news here is, Trump does change tack when his political interests are at stake.
Driving up the price of Americans’ favourite stuff was never going to fly. So, just like that, those big scary tariffs are now ancient history.
Britain now needs Prime Minister Keir Starmer to negotiate down the 25% tariffs on the automotive imports which threaten to do untold damage to the WM region’s car-making industry – an industry whose main overseas market is, you guessed it, America.
Stay tuned to WM News for our piece tomorrow morning (Sunday) with Sir Andy Street, former WM Mayor, advising how Starmer should do this.
