US customs chaos: semiconductor products only partially exempt
Officially, semiconductors are exempt from the new US tariffs. Nevertheless, PC components are likely to become significantly more expensive.
(Image: c't)
On April 5, 2025, the US government will introduce new country-specific tariffs that will affect almost the entire world. Most countries will be subject to a basic tariff of 10 percent. However, numerous countries will receive an individual tariff, including some Asian countries that are important for electronics production.
These include 32 percent for Taiwan, 34 percent for China and 46 percent for Vietnam. In Vietnam, some manufacturers have set up plants to circumvent past tariffs – this is now backfiring. The European Union is being slapped with across-the-board tariffs of 20 percent.
The White House writes in general terms that semiconductors are excluded from country-specific tariffs for the time being. This also applies to cars and car parts, which the USA imposes a flat 25% tariff on.
PC hardware will still be more expensive
It is unclear what is considered a “semiconductor”. Is a motherboard with a chipset a semiconductor product? What is already clear, however, is that virtually all PC components are likely to become more expensive in the USA, even with the semiconductor exemption. In the case of graphics cards, for example, US buyers are reporting that the new 25 percent aluminum tariffs are already taking effect on GPU imports.
Virtually all graphics cards have individual parts made of aluminum, such as the coolers. Normally, only these specific parts would be subject to additional customs duties. However, because manufacturers and retailers do not declare how much of the purchase price is made up of aluminum, customs will add the 25 percent to the total price. This also potentially affects mainboards.
Components without chips, such as PC cases, are even more affected. In such cases, both country-specific and product- and material-specific duties apply. An aluminum housing from China, for example, is subject to 59 percent (34 percent China, 25 percent aluminum).
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Further tariffs loom
And that's not all: the China Section 301 Tariffs threaten a further 25%. The USA introduced these tariffs in 2018, but they have so far been repeatedly suspended on an annual basis. The current suspension is valid until May 31, 2025. Should these tariffs come into force, the above-mentioned aluminum housing would end up with a surcharge of 84%. Many graphics cards and mainboards would be subject to tariffs totaling 50 percent. The costs for AI data centers are also likely to rise.
This shows where the journey could continue. US President Donald Trump has already clarified that he has the Taiwanese semiconductor industry on his back. Country or other product-specific tariffs could hit graphics cards and processors, among other things, in the future.
All the surcharges will initially only apply to US customers. However, things could get dicey for EU customers if manufacturers distribute the additional costs globally – and thus also raise prices in this country.
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