You’ll get a variety of responses if you ask people whether phones are too expensive or priced just right. Personally, it’s easy to find smartphones that are entirely worth their money, but at the same time, I think the higher end of the spectrum is high enough. Phones don’t need to get any more expensive than they are up there.
However, it doesn’t seem like my wishes and hopes have any real effect on the fabric of reality. As much as one might want to isolate themselves from politics, governmental choices are far-reaching. In today’s example of that, Trump’s newly-announced tariffs could mean that your next smartphone could be more expensive than you’re used to.
President Donald Trump Is Introducing Tariffs That Impact China, Among Others
Following the US Presidential Elections in November, Donald Trump found himself returning to the Oval Office as the 47th president of the United States. Whether you’re someone who cares about politics or not, that’s something that everyone knows by now. It’s especially important because the person in the highest seat of government of your country has the power to make your life better or worse.
I’m not here for political debate, though, or to talk about whether new policies are good or bad. Let’s take a purely factual approach. President Trump has announced big tariffs on imported goods from Canada, Mexico, and, most importantly, China—considering how massive an exporter that nation is. Canadian and Mexican goods will see a 25% tariff.
Meanwhile, Chinese goods will see an additional 10% tariff. The word “additional” is very important there since goods imported from China already had tariffs being paid on them, ranging anywhere from 25% to 100%, though smartphones were typically exempt, which was good for us as consumers.
This Means the Price of Your Next Smartphone Could Be Much Higher Than You’d Like
So, sure, smartphones were exempt from tariffs before, but that is going to change. With the additional 10% tariff added to the 0% tariff that smartphones were on, importers are going to need to pay an extra 10% on smartphones that come in from China. That’s not a good thing, especially for those looking to buy new phones, and I’ll explain why.
Smartphones from brands like Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, and Xiaomi come from China. Even for manufacturers based in the United States, such as Apple, a lot of production happens in China. Despite being an American brand, they’ll still have to pay 10% tariffs to import those phones from China. And to be clear, governments only receive tariff money—they don’t pay tariffs. That’s the duty (pun intended) of the importer.
Unfortunately, you can’t expect the importer to be the one to altruistically take up the 10% price increase for you. It’s almost certainly going to be passed down to you as a consumer. It’s not as simple as this, but you can think of that as a $1,000 smartphone being increased to $1,100, or a $500 device costing $550. Considering that OEMs are already holding themselves back from pushing up prices, this isn’t going to be fun.
