Financial markets have been roiled since President Trump imposed stiff tariffs on China, where Apple and other tech companies make many of their products.
I once worked on a project to calculate tariffs on goods for an importer. It was a massive job with lots of edges cases. And that was under normal conditions.
My gut feel is that some, maybe even most of this can be worked in, but there is absolutely going to be shit going under the radar because it’s too hard, too confusing or out right contradictory.
I’ve exported computer parts before and you’d be surprised that the way to declare them is not: “gaming PC” or “Macbook air 13"” in the customs form but more like “Data processing machines” and if you were to ship a motherboard, it has to be declared as “Data Processing Machine Parts” or whatever it is, with a totally different code and classification, same thing for memory devices, for CPUs and even for storage devices.
So yeah, I have a feeling they won’t even bother covering all the angles and just allow assembled computers, phones (since the US made iPhone is impossible at this point) and “chips” whatever they decide classifies as a chip.
I once worked on a project to calculate tariffs on goods for an importer. It was a massive job with lots of edges cases. And that was under normal conditions.
My gut feel is that some, maybe even most of this can be worked in, but there is absolutely going to be shit going under the radar because it’s too hard, too confusing or out right contradictory.
I’ve exported computer parts before and you’d be surprised that the way to declare them is not: “gaming PC” or “Macbook air 13"” in the customs form but more like “Data processing machines” and if you were to ship a motherboard, it has to be declared as “Data Processing Machine Parts” or whatever it is, with a totally different code and classification, same thing for memory devices, for CPUs and even for storage devices.
So yeah, I have a feeling they won’t even bother covering all the angles and just allow assembled computers, phones (since the US made iPhone is impossible at this point) and “chips” whatever they decide classifies as a chip.
When rules become too complex, everything becomes a negotiation, and subject to selective enforcement. That may be by design.